Radiopharmaceutical halves skeletal events in metastatic prostate cancer

Radium-223 chloride (Alpharadin) reduced by almost half the risk of pathologic bone fracture (3.6 versus 6.7 per cent with placebo) and spinal cord compression (3.1 versus 6.0 per cent) in men with hormone-refractory prostate cancer that had metastasised to bone, a New Orleans trial has shown.

Data from the ALSYMPCA study (Alpharadin in Symptomatic Prostate Cancer), presented at the American Society for Oncology Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in San Francisco on 1 February 2012, also showed that radium-233 chloride increased the time to the first skeletal-related event to 13.6 months compared with 8.4 months with placebo. It also reduced the need for external beam radiotherapy from 26.9 to 22.6 per cent. Treatment was well tolerated.

Radium-223 chloride is an alpha emitter that localises in bone damaged by tumour cells. A previous analysis of the ALSYMPCA study showed that it increased overall survival from 11.2 to 14.0 months. Radium-223 chloride is now being fast-tracked by the US Food and Drug Administration.