According to the findings from the SPARTAN trial, men who were castrate resistant but did not yet have any metastasizes (M0) who added the newly approved treatment known as Erleada (apalutamide) to their androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), when compared to men who added only a placebo to their ADT had a significantly improved metastasis-free survival. These means that these men delayed the onset of developing metastatic disease. There was a recently published paper in Lancet that investigated the effects of taking apalutamide versus placebo on their health-related quality of life (HRQOL).

THE SPARTAN trial was a multi-center, international, randomized, phase 3 trial. The men were randomly assigned (2:1) to taking 240 mg oral apalutamide per day plus androgen deprivation therapy, or matched oral placebo plus androgen deprivation therapy.

The analysis found that in this population of asymptomatic men with high-risk non-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, their quality of life was not affected by apalutamide. The bottom line is that for men who received apalutamide had a longer time before they developed their first metastasis and a longer time to symptomatic progression than did those who received placebo, they also had their quality of life preserved despite taking the drug.

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanonc/PIIS1470-2045(18)30456-X.pdf

- Joel T Nowak