CCTG PR26 prostate cancer clinical trial receives CIHR funding

Congratulations to Dr Michael Ong, who has received $2,487,015 over 7 years from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to support the CCTG PR26 (TRIPLE-SWITCH) prostate clinical trial. 

“TRIPLE-SWITCH will challenge the notion that every patient with metastatic prostate cancer should be offered chemotherapy based on the information we have at first diagnosis,” says study lead Dr. Michael Ong, medical oncologist at The Ottawa Hospital and associate professor at the University of Ottawa.  “Instead, in this trial we personalize the use of chemotherapy based on how well patients are responding to the new generation of hormone therapy.  We hope that this approach will improve how long and how well patients live.”

The drug being studied (docetaxel) is a type of chemotherapy drug that has been used for the treatment of prostate cancer, but it is not clear if it can offer better results than standard treatment for these patients. Docetaxel chemotherapy disrupts cell microtubules, targeting both testosterone dependent and independent mechanisms. While clinicians recommend hormone therapy for metastatic prostate cancer, there is a question about who benefits from the early addition of chemotherapy, with prior data suggesting that aggressive tumours may benefit the most. 

“Patients, myself included, often look at participation in a clinical trial as an opportunity to receive the newest therapies available, but what if the most innovative approach is an existing treatment that was prematurely displaced? PR 26 is a classic academic trial asking a bold question with the most important endpoint possible in cancer treatment — overall survival,” says CCTG Patient Representative Erwin Wanderer.

Hormone therapies lower or block testosterone very effectively, however patients have particularly poor prognosis if their PSA levels do not drop to near zero in the first six months of hormone treatment. These are the patients that are likely to benefit from early chemotherapy by targeting prostate cancer cells that have detectable resistance to hormone therapy. Positive results will enable more precise chemotherapy use and increase the use of docetaxel in patients worldwide, improving patient treatment and overall survival. 

This trial is an important trial asking an important question that hopefully will lead to an improvement in survival in men who have prostate cancer, says Dr. Mariam Jafri, CCTG Senior Investigator. “The trial has been approved with additional funding from the US National Clinical Trials Network and the opportunity to participate will be offered to patients in the US and Canada.”

The study will be coordinated in Canada by CCTG and has been co-developed by the CCTG GU Disease Site Committee with the support of the US based SWOG Cancer Research Network. Dr Ong (Canada) and Dr Sokolova (USA) are the study chairs and will lead the trial.

(Dr Ong image courtesy of The Ottawa Hospital)