A study was conducted to determine the 5−year recurrence−free survival in patients with high−risk prostate cancer after neoadjuvant combination chemotherapy followed by surgery. Secondary endpoints included safety, pathologic effects of chemotherapy, and predictors of disease recurrence.

Fifty−seven patients were enrolled in a phase 1/2 study of weekly docetaxel 35 mg/m(2) and escalating mitoxantrone to 4 mg/m(2) before prostatectomy. Patients were treated with 16 weeks of chemotherapy administered weekly on a 3 of every 4 week schedule. A tissue microarray, constructed from the prostatectomy specimens, served to facilitate the exploratory evaluation of biomarkers. The primary endpoint was recurrence−free survival. Disease recurrence was defined as a confirmed serum prostate−specific antigen (PSA) >0.4 ng/mL.

Of the 57 patients, 54 received 4 cycles of docetaxel and mitoxantrone before radical prostatectomy. Grade 4 toxicities were limited to leukopenia, neutropenia, and hyperglycemia. Serum testosterone levels remained stable after chemotherapy. Negative surgical margins were attained in 67% of cases. Lymph node involvement was detected in 18.5% of cases. With a median follow−up of 63 months, 27 of 57 (47.4%) patients recurred. The Kaplan−Meier recurrence−free survival at 2 years was 65.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 53.0%−78.0%) and was 49.8% at 5 years (95% CI, 35.5%−64.1%). Pretreatment serum PSA, lymph node involvement, and postchemotherapy tissue vascular endothelial growth factor expression were independent predictors of early recurrence.

Preoperative chemotherapy with docetaxel and mitoxantrone is feasible. Approximately half of the high−risk patients remain free of disease recurrence at 5 years, and clinical and molecular predictors of early recurrence were identified. Cancer 2010. (c) 2010 American Cancer Society.

PMID: 20143429 [PubMed − as supplied by publisher] Source: National Library of Medicine.