Talazoparib plus enzalutamide in men with first-line metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (TALAPRO-2): a randomised, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial

Author(s): Prof Neeraj Agarwal, MD1;Arun A Azad, MBBS2;Joan Carles, MD3;Prof Andre P Fay, MD4;Prof Nobuaki Matsubara, MD5;Daniel Heinrich, MD6;Prof Cezary Szczylik, MD7,8;Ugo De Giorgi, MD9;Prof Jae Young Joung, MD10;Peter C C Fong, MD11, 12;Eric Voog, MD13;Prof Robert J Jones, MBChB14;Neal D Shore, MD15;Curtis Dunshee, MD16;Stefanie Zschäbitz, MD17;Prof Jan Oldenburg, MD18;Xun Lin, PhD19;Cynthia G Healy, BS20;Nicola Di Santo, MD21;Fabian Zohren, MD22;Prof Karim Fizazi, MD23
Source: DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01055-3

Dr. Maen Hussein's Thoughts

Combination PARP with androgen blocker, regardless of HRR gene alterations showed benefit vs. androgen blocker alone.

BACKGROUND

Co-inhibition of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and androgen receptor activity might result in antitumour efficacy irrespective of alterations in DNA damage repair genes involved in homologous recombination repair (HRR). We aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of talazoparib (a PARP inhibitor) plus enzalutamide (an androgen receptor blocker) versus enzalutamide alone in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

METHODS

TALAPRO-2 is a randomised, double-blind, phase 3 trial of talazoparib plus enzalutamide versus placebo plus enzalutamide as first-line therapy in men (age ≥18 years [≥20 years in Japan]) with asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic mCRPC receiving ongoing androgen deprivation therapy. Patients were enrolled from 223 hospitals, cancer centres, and medical centres in 26 countries in North America, Europe, Israel, South America, South Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region. Patients were prospectively assessed for HRR gene alterations in tumour tissue and randomly assigned (1:1) to talazoparib 0·5 mg or placebo, plus enzalutamide 160 mg, administered orally once daily. Randomisation was stratified by HRR gene alteration status (deficient vs non-deficient or unknown) and previous treatment with life-prolonging therapy (docetaxel or abiraterone, or both: yes vs no) in the castration-sensitive setting. The sponsor, patients, and investigators were masked to talazoparib or placebo, while enzalutamide was open-label. The primary endpoint was radiographic progression-free survival (rPFS) by blinded independent central review, evaluated in the intention-to-treat population. Safety was evaluated in all patients who received at least one dose of study drug. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03395197) and is ongoing.

FINDINGS

Between Jan 7, 2019, and Sept 17, 2020, 805 patients were enrolled and randomly assigned (402 to the talazoparib group and 403 to the placebo group). Median follow-up for rPFS was 24·9 months (IQR 21·9–30·2) for the talazoparib group and 24·6 months (14·4–30·2) for the placebo group. At the planned primary analysis, median rPFS was not reached (95% CI 27·5 months–not reached) for talazoparib plus enzalutamide and 21·9 months (16·6–25·1) for placebo plus enzalutamide (hazard ratio 0·63; 95% CI 0·51–0·78; p<0·0001). In the talazoparib group, the most common treatment-emergent adverse events were anaemia, neutropenia, and fatigue; the most common grade 3–4 event was anaemia (185 [46%] of 398 patients), which improved after dose reduction, and only 33 (8%) of 398 patients discontinued talazoparib due to anaemia. Treatment-related deaths occurred in no patients in the talazoparib group and two patients (<1%) in the placebo group.

INTERPRETATION

Talazoparib plus enzalutamide resulted in clinically meaningful and statistically significant improvement in rPFS versus standard of care enzalutamide as first-line treatment for patients with mCRPC. Final overall survival data and additional long-term safety follow-up will further clarify the clinical benefit of the treatment combination in patients with and without tumour HRR gene alterations.

FUNDING

Pfizer.

Author Affiliations

1Huntsman Cancer Institute (NCI-CCC), University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA;2Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia;3Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Barcelona, Spain;4PUCRS School of Medicine, Porto Alegre, Brazil;5National Cancer Center Hospital East, Chiba, Japan;6Innlandet Hospital Trust, Gjøvik, Norway;7Department of Oncology, European Health Center, Otwock, Poland;8Postgraduate Medical Education Center, Warsaw, Poland;9IRCCS Istituto Romagnolo per lo Studio dei Tumori (IRST) Dino Amadori, Meldola, Italy;10National Cancer Center, Goyang, South Korea;11Auckland City Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand;12University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand;13Clinique Victor Hugo Centre Jean Bernard, Le Mans, France;14School of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow, Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, Glasgow, UK;15Carolina Urologic Research Center, Myrtle Beach, SC, USA;16Arizona Urology Specialists, Tucson, AZ, USA;17National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany;18Akershus University Hospital (Ahus), Lørenskog, Norway;19Pfizer, La Jolla, CA, USA;20Pfizer, Collegeville, PA, USA;21Pfizer, Durham, NC, USA;22Pfizer, New York, NY, USA;23Institut Gustave Roussy, University of Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Articles

Artificial intelligence and radiologists in prostate cancer detection on MRI (PI-CAI): an international, paired, non-inferiority, confirmatory study

Will we be replaced by AI? It seems that for radiologists, an AI system was better than the human counterpart in this study looking at prostate cancer diagnostic imaging. I doubt many of us would accept a solely computer-generated report, but this study highlights how AI may help as a supportive tool in the primary diagnostic setting. Of course, prospective validation will be needed.

Read More »

BRCAAway: A randomized phase 2 trial of abiraterone, olaparib, or abiraterone + olaparib in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) bearing homologous recombination-repair mutations (HRRm).

We know that combination PARP and antiandrogen is better than antiandrogen alone. I have wondered if we need antiancrogen on those patients. This shows that, YES, we do. The combination also was better than PARP inhibitor monotherapy in those patients carrying HRRm.

Read More »

CONTACT-2: Phase 3 study of cabozantinib (C) plus atezolizumab (A) vs second novel hormonal therapy (NHT) in patients (pts) with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

The role for immunotherapy in combination with multitargeted therapy in prostate cancer, for patients who had previous docetaxol, or had visceral disease (liver) showed more benefit from the combination vs. second novel hormonal therapy. Recall that patients who had exposure to docetaxol can be treated with pluvicto. Genomic and genetic testing is encouraged for those patients as PARP targeted mutations can be found (homologous recombination-repair mutations).

Read More »