Prolaris, from Myriad Genetics, Salt Lake City, accurately predicts which men with intermediate- or high-risk prostate cancer will benefit from multimodality therapy and which can avoid unnecessary treatment, according to data presented at the recent American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancer Symposium in San Francisco.1

“While it has been demonstrated that multimodality therapy can improve overall survival in prostate cancer, it comes at the risk of increased morbidity and increased cost to the healthcare system,” says Jonathan Tward, MD, PhD, associate professor of radiation oncology at the University of Utah. “Prolaris provides a unique tool that can accurately predict which patients with high-risk prostate cancer will truly benefit from multimodality therapy and, conversely, which patients with lower risk can safely avoid such treatments.”

The investigators evaluated 718 men with intermediate- or high-risk prostate cancer. The Prolaris score predicted metastasis (HR = 3.75; p = 1.6 x 10–16) and remained highly predictive after adjusting for the effect of standard clinical and pathological features (HR = 4.30; p = 4.4 x 10–8). Patients above the high-risk threshold with a Prolaris score greater than 2.112, comprising approximately 44% of the men in the study, saw a statistically significant benefit from multimodality therapy, leading to a reduction in risk of metastases. Patients below the high-risk threshold saw no benefit from multimodality therapy, suggesting that such patients may be able to avoid the additional morbidity associated with additional treatment.

For more information, visit Myriad Genetics.

Reference

1. Tward JD, Schlomm T, Bardot S, et al. Ability of the combined clinical cell-cycle risk score to identify patients that benefit from multi versus single modality therapy in NCCN intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer [abstract no. 346, online]. Poster presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancer Symposium, San Francisco, February 13–15, 2020. Available at: https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.oncologymeetings.org/prod/s3fs-public/2020-02/gu20-prostate-cancer-localized.pdf?null. Accessed April 20, 2020.

Featured image: Prostate cancer of a human, highly detailed segment of panorama. Microphotograph at 10x zoom. Photo © Viachaslau Bondarau, courtesy Dreamstime (ID 66313345).