Objective
To examine the results of the Malaysian Advanced Prostate Cancer Consensus Conference (MyAPCCC) 2018, held for assessing the generalizability of consensus reached at the Advanced Prostate ...Cancer Consensus Conference (APCCC 2017) to Malaysia, a middle‐income country.
Methods
Six key sections were chosen: (1) high‐risk localized and locally advanced prostate cancer, (2) oligometastatic prostate cancer, (3) castration‐naïve prostate cancer, (4) castrate resistant prostate cancer, (5) use of osteoclast‐targeted therapy and (6) global access to prostate cancer drugs. There were 101 consensus questions, consisting of 91 questions from APCCC 2017 and 10 new questions from MyAPCCC 2018, selected and modified by the steering committee; of which, 23 questions were assessed in both ideal world and real‐world settings. A panel of 22 experts, comprising of 11 urologists and 11 oncologists, voted on 101 predefined questions anonymously. Final voting results were compared with the APCCC 2017 outcomes.
Results
Most voting results from the MyAPCCC 2018 were consistent with the APCCC 2017 outcomes. No consensus was achieved for controversial topics with little level I evidence, such as management of oligometastatic disease. No consensus was reached on using high‐cost drugs in castration‐naïve or castration‐resistant metastatic prostate cancer in real‐world settings. All panellists recommended using generic drugs when available.
Conclusions
The MyAPCCC 2018 voting results reflect the management of advanced prostate cancer in a middle‐income country in a real‐world setting. These results may serve as a guide for local clinical practices and highlight the financial challenges in modern healthcare.
It is of much interest to understand the efficacy of abiraterone acetate (AA) in routine clinical practice. We assessed the clinical outcome of AA in patients with metastatic castration‐resistant ...prostate cancer (mCRPC) and determined clinical factors associated with AA treatment duration in real‐world setting. This real‐world cohort consisted of 93 patients with mCRPC treated with AA in Thailand (58.1%) and Malaysia (41.9%). Primary endpoints were overall survival (OS) and biochemical progression‐free survival (bPFS). Secondary endpoints were predictors associated with AA treatment duration evaluated with Cox proportional hazards regression. Around 74% were chemotherapy‐naïve. The median AA treatment duration was 10 months (IQR 5.6‐17.1). Malaysians had a relatively lower median OS and bPFS (OS 17.8 months; 95% CI 6.4‐29.1, bPFS 10.4 months; 95% CI 8.8‐12.0) compared to Thais (OS 27.0 months; 95% CI 11.3‐42.7, bPFS 14.0 months; 95% CI 5.8‐22.2), although it did not achieve statistical significance (P > .05). Patients with longer AA treatment duration (>10 months) had lower risk of death and longer bPFS, compared to those with shorter AA treatment duration (≤10 months) (hazard ratio HR 0.10, 95% CI 0.05‐0.22 and HR 0.13, 95% CI 0.06‐0.25, respectively). Multivariable analysis showed that PSA at AA initiation, presence of PSA response and chemotherapy‐naive were independently associated with AA duration (P < .05). Abiraterone acetate is well‐tolerated in the Southeast Asian cohort with comparable survival benefits to other Asian populations in real‐world setting. Lower PSA levels at AA initiation, presence of PSA response, and chemotherapy‐naive were significant in determining AA treatment duration.
Association of abiraterone acetate duration with (a) overall survival and (b) biochemical progress free survival in metastatic castration‐resistant prostate cancer.
Abstract
Introduction
Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) overexpressing breast cancer is a high-risk subtype with poor prognosis. The incidence of HER2 expressing tumors is high in ...Malaysia; however, there is limited information on the characteristics of these tumors. Therefore, we sought to collect the patient and tumor characteristics of HER2+ breast cancer cases at five centers in Malaysia.
Patients and Methods
A retrospective review was conducted of the data from charts of patients diagnosed with HER2+ breast cancer between January 2014 and December 2015 at Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Institute Kanser Negara, Hospital Pulau Pinang, Hospital Besar Sarawak, and Hospital Likas in Malaysia.
Results
Of the 1,519 screened patient’ charts, 396 were included for the analysis. The average age of HER2+ breast cancer cases at diagnosis was 51.07 years. A high percentage of cases presented at an advanced stage (38.89 and 12.12% with stage 3 and 4, respectively). About 58.84% of patients were categorized as “high-risk,” with one or more lymph node involvement. Close to half (47.98%) of cases presented with T2 stage tumors, and infiltrating ductal carcinomas were reported in 85.35% of tumors. The most common immunohistochemical subtype was estrogen receptor (ER)+/progesterone receptor (PR)+/HER2+ (47.47%), followed by ER–/PR–/HER2+ (37.12%).
Conclusion
HER2 overexpressing tumors represent an aggressive subtype in Malaysia with large tumor size, high tumor grade, and lymph node involvement. Early diagnosis and management of these tumors may help improve the survival rates. Future studies should help elucidate the treatment patterns and outcomes in HER2+ breast cancer patients in Malaysia.
Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) remains a lethal disease with current standard-of-care therapies. Homologous recombination repair (HRR) gene alterations, including
...alterations, can sensitize cancer cells to poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibition, which may improve outcomes in treatment-naïve mCRPC when combined with androgen receptor signaling inhibition.
MAGNITUDE (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03748641) is a phase III, randomized, double-blinded study that evaluates niraparib and abiraterone acetate plus prednisone (niraparib + AAP) in patients with (HRR+, n = 423) or without (HRR-, n = 247) HRR-associated gene alterations, as prospectively determined by tissue/plasma-based assays. Patients were assigned 1:1 to receive niraparib + AAP or placebo + AAP. The primary end point, radiographic progression-free survival (rPFS) assessed by central review, was evaluated first in the
subgroup and then in the full HRR+ cohort, with secondary end points analyzed for the full HRR+ cohort if rPFS was statistically significant. A futility analysis was preplanned in the HRR- cohort.
Median rPFS in the
subgroup was significantly longer in the niraparib + AAP group compared with the placebo + AAP group (16.6
10.9 months; hazard ratio HR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.79;
= .001). In the overall HRR+ cohort, rPFS was significantly longer in the niraparib + AAP group compared with the placebo + AAP group (16.5
13.7 months; HR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.56 to 0.96;
= .022). These findings were supported by improvement in the secondary end points of time to symptomatic progression and time to initiation of cytotoxic chemotherapy. In the HRR- cohort, futility was declared per the prespecified criteria. Treatment with niraparib + AAP was tolerable, with anemia and hypertension as the most reported grade ≥ 3 adverse events.
Combination treatment with niraparib + AAP significantly lengthened rPFS in patients with HRR+ mCRPC compared with standard-of-care AAP.
Media: see text.
BACKGROUND: Scalp cooling has been shown in several studies to be an effective method in preventing chemotherapy-induced alopecia (CIA). Data on the use of scalp cooling in Asian countries are ...limited, and evidence for its use and efficacy among our patients are not available. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness and tolerability of scalp cooling among breast cancer patients in our study population. METHODS: Consecutive breast cancer patients receiving FE75C, FE100C, FE100C-D, docetaxel75 or docetaxel, and cyclophosphamide (TC) at our treatment center were recruited and allocated to the treatment (scalp cooling, DigniCapTM system) or control group in this prospective nonrandomized controlled study. The assessment of alopecia was carried out using the World Health Organization grading system and clinical photographs. RESULTS: Seventy patients were recruited, but only 25 completed the study and were evaluable for analysis. Five of 12 patients (42%) in the scalp cooling group managed to preserve hair. Two of three patients who received FE75C and TC regimens had minimal hair loss. All patients treated with FE100C had severe hair loss. Half of all patients who received scalp cooling throughout chemotherapy rated the treatment as reasonably well tolerated. The most common reason for discontinuing scalp cooling was intolerance to its side effects. CONCLUSION: Scalp cooling is potentially effective in reducing CIA caused by docetaxel, TC, and FE75C chemotherapy regimen. However, it was not well tolerated by our study population. The dropout rate was high, and this needs to be taken into consideration when pursuing further trials in a similar setting.
There are many options in the treatment of heavily pretreated metastatic breast cancer however none of the therapeutic agents have shown promising improvement of survival with good toxicity profile. ...Eribulin is a novel nontaxane microtubule dynamics inhibitor. Two recent clinical trial showed that Eribulin improves progression-free and overall survival in this subset of patients. We report our experience with using Eribulin in five patients with metastatic breast cancer either in second or third-line setting, in our centre.
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