A trial of docetaxel with or without dasatinib for prostate cancer that is no longer responding to hormone therapy (READY)

Cancer type:

Prostate cancer

Status:

Results

Phase:

Phase 3

This trial looked at dasatinib and chemotherapy for prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body and is no longer responding to hormone therapy.

Prostate cancer that is no longer responding to hormone therapy is known as hormone refractory prostate cancer. Doctors may use chemotherapy to treat it. The drug they most often use is called docetaxel (Taxotere). You have steroids with docetaxel to reduce the risk of side effects.

Dasatinib (Sprycel) is a type of biological therapy called a cancer growth blocker. It stops signals that cancer cells use to divide and grow. Researchers hoped it would be useful for men who have hormone refractory prostate cancer.

In this trial, half the men had docetaxel and dasatinib, and half had docetaxel and a dummy drug (placebo).

The aims of the trial were to

Find out if dasatinib with docetaxel works better than docetaxel alone for hormone refractory prostate cancer
Learn more about the side effects

Summary of results

The research team found that dasatinib and docetaxel did not work better than docetaxel alone for prostate cancer that was no longer responding to hormone therapy.

This trial recruited 1,522 men from 25 countries. They all had prostate cancer that had continued to grow despite hormone therapy, but had not had chemotherapy before. The men taking part were put into 1 of 2 treatment groups at random, and

762 men had docetaxel and dasatinib
760 men had docetaxel and a dummy (placebo) drug

The research team looked at how long it took for the cancer to start growing again after the men started treatment. They found, on average, it was

11.8 months for men who’d had docetaxel and dasatinib
11.1 months for men who’d had docetaxel and placebo

They also looked at how many men in each group had died, and found it was

452 men (59%) who’d had docetaxel and dasatinib
462 men (61%) who’d had docetaxel and placebo

Most men taking part had at least one side effect. When they looked at how many men in each group had a more serious side effect, they found it was

454 men (60%) who’d had docetaxel and dasatinib
415 men (55%) who’d had docetaxel and placebo

The most common side effects in both groups were diarrhoea, tiredness (fatigue), hair loss and a drop in red blood cells. A few more people in the dasatinib group had diarrhoea, fatigue and weakness.

The trial team concluded that because there was so little difference between the groups, there was no benefit in giving dasatinib as well as docetaxel to men with hormone refractory prostate cancer.

We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. 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. We have not analysed the data ourselves.