Cabazitaxel: filling one of the gaps in the treatment of prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer in men and the fifth most common cancer overall. Globally, more than 900,000 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in 2010 and more than 260,000 will, unfortunately, die from the disease. In the US, an estimated 217,000 new cases of prostate cancer and 32,000 deaths are expected this year. Definitive therapy (surgery or radiation) is highly effective, but if the tumor escapes the gland, treatment options are limited. For this population of patients, androgen suppression is the cornerstone of initial therapy. Furthermore, progression to castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is inevitable. The current front-line treatment for patients with CRPC is the chemotherapeutic agent docetaxel (administered every 3 weeks). Until now, it is the only agent that has been shown to prolong survival in CRPC. The approval trial for docetaxel found a median overall survival of 19.2 months for patients receiving docetaxel plus prednisone compared to 16.3 months for patients receiving mitoxantrone plus prednisone (p=0.0094). Mitoxantrone plus prednisone is often utilized for its palliative benefits, but two randomized trials failed to demonstrate a survival advantage.