A trial looking at docetaxel and Zibotentan (ZD4054) for prostate cancer that has spread to the bones

Cancer type:

Prostate cancer

Status:

Results

Phase:

Phase 3

This trial was looking at a drug called zibotentan alongside docetaxel for men with prostate cancer that had spread to the bones. The trial was for men who had prostate cancer that was no longer responding to hormone therapy.

More about this trial

If you have prostate cancer that has spread to the bone, you may have had treatment with hormone therapy. But sometimes this treatment stops working and the cancer continues to grow. This is called hormone resistant prostate cancer.

Doctors can treat hormone resistant prostate cancer with the chemotherapy drug docetaxel. But researchers are always looking for ways to improve treatment. In this trial, they were looking at a drug called zibotentan (also known as ZD4054).

Zibotentan is a type of biological therapy that can block the growth of cancer cells. It works by blocking growth receptors called endothelin receptors. Earlier trials had shown that endothelin blockers may be able to slow down the growth of prostate cancer that has spread to the bone.

The aim of this trial was to see if having zibotentan with docetaxel helped men with prostate cancer to live longer.

Summary of results

The researchers found that adding zibotentan to docetaxel did not increase the average length of time that men with hormone resistant prostate cancer lived.

The trial recruited 1,052 men in a number of different countries. They all had prostate cancer that had spread to their bones and had stopped responding to hormone therapy. Their average age was 68.

It was a randomised trial. The men taking part were put into 1 of 2 treatment groups by a computer. Neither they nor their doctor could choose which group they were in

524 had docetaxel and zibotentan
528 had docetaxel and a dummy drug (placebo )

The trial team looked at the average length of time that men in each group lived (doctors call this overall survival). They found it was about the same in both groups.

As the addition of zibotentan did not improve overall survival for this group of men, there are no plans to study it further as a possible treatment for prostate cancer.

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 who did the research. We have not analysed the data ourselves.