Zoledronic acid for the treatment of prostate cancer

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Prostate cancer remains the most common solid tumor afflicting men in the developed world. Metastatic prostate cancer is a source of great morbidity and mortality especially due to osseous involvement that gives rise to significant symptoms of pain or pathologic fractures or cord compression. Bisphosphonates had been widely used in the treatment of metastatic prostate bone metastases given their demonstrated benefit with a delay of skeletal-related events (SREs) but without prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response or overall survival benefit.

Areas covered: In this review, the authors summarize the available literature on the clinical studies that led to the development and regulatory approval of zoledronic acid in men with metastatic prostate cancer. The authors also provide their expert opinion and future perspectives on this therapeutic.

Expert opinion: Zoledronic acid is an established adjunctive treatment and bone-targeted therapy for the supportive care of men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Efforts to study its utility in earlier phases of metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer has not shown superior outcomes compared with standard androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) or docetaxel alone.

KEYWORDS:

• Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer
• zoledronic acid
• prostate cancer
• bone-targeted agents

Declaration of interest

JB Aragon-Ching has served on the advisory boards of Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Astellas, Dendreon and Bayer Healthcare and has served on the speaker’s bureau of Bristol-Myers Squibb. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Referee disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This manuscript has not been funded.