A study of AZD3514 for prostate cancer that has spread and is no longer responding to hormone therapy

Cancer type:

Prostate cancer

Status:

Results

Phase:

Phase 1

This study looked at a drug called AZD3514 for prostate cancer.

It was for men with prostate cancer that had spread to another part of the body and was no longer responding to hormone therapy.

More about this trial

Doctors use hormone therapy to treat prostate cancer. This can keep it under control for long periods of time.

But hormone therapy can stop working and researchers are looking for other treatments for prostate cancer when this happens.

In this study, they looked at a drug called AZD3514.

Prostate cancer needs the hormone testosterone Open a glossary item

to grow. The testosterone locks into receptors on the cancer cells. AZD3514 works by breaking down these receptors so that testosterone can’t tell the prostate cancer cells to grow.

The aims of the study were to:

find the highest safe dose of AZD3514
see if it slows the growth of prostate cancer that is no longer responding to hormone therapy
learn more about the side effects
find out more about AZD3514 and what happened to it in the body
see if it was safe to have AZD3514 with a drug called abiraterone

Summary of results

The study team found that AZD3514 worked reasonably well when hormone treatment had stopped working. But the side effects of feeling and being sick were a considerable concern.

This study closed in 2012 and these results were published in 2015.

About the trial

This summary combines the results of 2 studies of AZD3514.

Both studies were a phase 1 study. A total 70 men took part in both studies. 8 of these men had AZD3514 with abiraterone.

The first few people had a low dose of AZD3514. The next few had a higher dose and so on until the highest safe dose was found.

Results

Overall the best dose of AZD3514 was below 2g twice a day.

The most common side effects were:

feeling sick
being sick
tiredness
lack of energy
loss of appetite
indigestion
diarrhoea
constipation

Of the 70 men, the PSA blood level of 9 men had gone down by half (50%) or more.

At 6 months, 30 men had no sign of their cancer getting worse.

At a year, 15 men had no sign of their cancer getting worse.

Conclusion

The team concluded that the highest safe dose of AZD3514 did work reasonably well. But the side effects of this dose especially feeling and being sick made it unacceptable as a treatment.

Although the side effects mean that they don’t recommend AZD3514 as a treatment, they have learnt that this type of drug can work. And that further research into related drugs that don’t cause such severe side effects is deserved.

Where we got this information from

We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed Open a glossary item

) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team who did the research. We have not analysed the data ourselves.