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Biomedical subjects

P Schellhammer

Publications and source records attributed to P Schellhammer.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

Assessment of endpoints for clinical trials for localized prostate cancer.

OBJECTIVES: The AUA Practice Guidelines Panel convened to address the issue of appropriate endpoints for assessment of treatment modalities for localized carcinoma of the prostate. METHODS: A review of the literature and the design of existing clinical trials produced a consensus, which was presented to and critiqued by the members of the general conference. RESULTS: The pitfalls associated with identification of local failure endpoints were discussed, and the more accurate endpoints of freedom from metastatic progression and overall survival were recognized. The strict definition that must be fulfilled for intermediate endpoints to become surrogates for metastasis free and/or survival endpoints was stressed. For more efficient and rapid conduct of future clinical trials, the urgent need to validate such surrogate endpoints by evaluation in randomized control trials is obvious. PSA, while an indicator of disease activity and a critical marker for estimating disease progression or regression in response to therapy, is not a surrogate for metastasis free or overall survival. CONCLUSION: Until surrogate endpoints are validated, the committee has evaluated the endpoints in current use, reviewed their limitations, and stressed the importance of quality-of-life assessment together with the traditional endpoint assessment.

Clinical Trials as Topic

Maximal androgen blockade for patients with metastatic prostate cancer: outcome of a controlled trial of bicalutamide versus flutamide, each in combination with luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone analogue therapy. Casodex Combination Study Group.

OBJECTIVES: To review the outcome of therapy with maximal androgen blockade and compare the efficacy and safety of bicalutamide and flutamide, each used in combination with luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone analogue (LHRH-A) therapy, in patients with untreated metastatic (Stage D2) prostate cancer. METHODS: Randomized, double-blind (for antiandrogen therapy), multicenter study with a 2 x 2 factorial design. A total of 813 patients were allocated 1:1 to bicalutamide (50 mg once daily) or flutamide (250 mg three times daily), plus 2:1 to goserelin acetate (3.6 mg every 28 days) or leuprolide acetate (7.5 mg every 28 days). RESULTS: At the time of analysis (median follow-up, 49 weeks), bicalutamide plus LHRH-A was associated with a statistically significant improvement in time-to-treatment failure, the primary endpoint, when compared with flutamide plus LHRH-A. The results with longer follow-up (median, 95 weeks) support previous findings of an improved time-to-treatment failure with bicalutamide plus LHRH-A; however, the difference between groups was not statistically significant. A treatment failure endpoint was reached by 68% of patients in the bicalutamide plus LHRH-A group, compared with 72% of patients in the flutamide plus LHRH-A group. The hazard ratio of bicalutamide plus LHRH-A to flutamide plus LHRH-A was 0.87 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.74-1.03; P = 0.10). The upper one-sided 95% confidence limit for survival was 1.00, meeting the definition for equivalence (< 1.25). With longer follow-up, overall mortality was 34%, with equivalent survival between groups: 32% of patients in the bicalutamide plus LHRH-A group died, compared with 35% in the flutamide plus LHRH-A group. The hazard ratio of bicalutamide plus LHRH-A to flutamide plus LHRH-A was 0.88 (95% CI, 0.69-1.11; P = 0.29). The upper one-sided 95% confidence limit for survival was 1.07, meeting the definition for equivalence (< 1.25). Diarrhea occurred in 24% of patients in the flutamide plus LHRH-A group compared with 10% of patients in the bicalutamide plus LHRH-A group (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with metastatic prostate cancer, bicalutamide plus LHRH-A is effective and well tolerated. Because of its efficacy and tolerability profile, together with its convenient once-daily dosing formulation, bicalutamide represents a prime candidate for antiandrogen of first choice in combination with LHRH-A therapy in the treatment of men with metastatic prostate cancer.

Adult

A controlled trial of Casodex (bicalutamide) vs. flutamide, each in combination with luteinising hormone-releasing hormone analogue therapy in patients with advanced prostate cancer. Casodex Combination Study Group.

Between January 1992 and September 1993, 813 patients with stage D2 prostate cancer were enrolled in a multicentre, double-blind (for antiandrogen therapy) trial and randomised to antiandrogen therapy with Casodex (bicalutamide, 50 mg once daily) or flutamide (250 mg three times daily) and to luteinising hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) analogue therapy with Zoladex (goserelin, 3.6 mg every 28 days) or leuprolide (7.5 mg every 28 days). Time to treatment failure was the primary efficacy endpoint. At a median follow-up time of 49 weeks, there was a significant (p = 0.005) difference between groups in time to treatment failure in favour of Casodex plus LHRH analogue. Overall, 168 (42%) of 404 patients in the Casodex plus LHRH analogue group and 218 (53%) of 409 patients in the flutamide plus LHRH analogue group reached a treatment failure endpoint. Although a cause-specific treatment-failure analysis was not performed, the difference between groups in treatment failure attributed to adverse events (mainly diarrhoea) was evident primarily in the first 7 months of therapy. The difference between groups in treatment failure for objective progression was most evident after 1 year of therapy. With further follow-up (median time of 95 weeks), the result for time to treatment failure, although no longer statistically significant, were consistent with the previous finding of an improvement in time to treatment failure associated with Casodex plus LHRH analogue therapy. With a median of 95 weeks of follow-up, 34% of deaths had occurred. The survival analysis was not dissimilar between the 2 groups. At 49 weeks median follow up, the incidence of diarrhoea was significantly (p < 0.001) lower among patients in the Casodex plus LHRH analogue group. Diarrhoea led to withdrawal from therapy for 2 patients in the Casodex plus LHRH analogue group, compared with 25 patients in the flutamide plus LHRH analogue group. In conclusion, Casodex plus LHRH analogue is well tolerated and effective with an improvement in time to treatment failure over flutamide plus LHRH analogue. Survival was not dissimilar between the 2 treatment groups.

Androgen Antagonists

Repair of obliterative vesicourethral stricture after radical prostatectomy: a technique for preservation of continence.

We present the open surgical repair of complete obstruction of the bladder neck unresponsive to endoscopic management. By combining abdominal and perineal dissection, partial pubectomy, and omental wrapping, repeat anastomosis is possible without the need for bladder tubularization. Two patients have been repaired successfully. Although both men presented with indwelling suprapubic tubes and a defect of greater than 1.5 cm, they are now voiding normally at 18 and 7 months post-operatively without the need for pads, medication, or instrumentation. Complete obliteration of the bladder neck after radical prostatectomy can be functionally reconstructed. Postoperative continence will depend on the function of the membranous urethra. If incontinence occurs, this can be managed in a reconstructed open urethra.

Humans

A controlled trial of bicalutamide versus flutamide, each in combination with luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone analogue therapy, in patients with advanced prostate cancer. Casodex Combination Study Group.

OBJECTIVES: To compare the efficacy and safety of bicalutamide and flutamide, each used in combination with luteinizing hormone-releasing analogue (LHRH-A) therapy, in patients with untreated metastatic (Stage D2) prostate cancer. METHODS: Randomized, double-blind (for antiandrogen therapy), multicenter study with a 2 x 2 factorial design. Eight hundred thirteen patients were allocated 1:1 to bicalutamide (50 mg once daily) and flutamide (250 mg three times daily) and 2:1 to goserelin acetate (3.6 mg every 28 days) and leuprolide acetate (7.5 mg every 28 days). RESULTS: With a median duration of follow-up of 49 weeks, time to treatment failure, the primary endpoint, was significantly (P = 0.005) better for the bicalutamide plus LHRH-A group than for the flutamide plus LHRH-A group. Patients in the flutamide plus LHRH-A group were 34% more likely to fail treatment over the given time period, as indicated by the hazard ratio of 0.749 (95% confidence interval, 0.61 to 0.92) for bicalutamide plus LHRH-A to flutamide plus LHRH-A. Results for secondary endpoints (survival, quality of life, and subjective response) were similar between groups. Diarrhea occurred in 24% of patients in the flutamide plus LHRH-A group, compared with 10% of patients in the bicalutamide plus LHRH-A group (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with metastatic prostate cancer, bicalutamide plus LHRH-A is well tolerated and provides superior efficacy to flutamide plus LHRH-A with respect to time to treatment failure. Assessment of the effects of these regimens on longer term survival requires additional time for follow-up.

Adenocarcinoma

Locoregional disease.

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Combined Modality Therapy

The significance of post-irradiation prostate biopsy with long-term follow-up.

Ninety-four patients, Stage A2-C, definitively irradiated for adenocarcinoma of the prostate from 1975 to 1981 underwent digitally directed transperineal needle biopsy of a clinically negative prostate gland at least 18 months post-therapy. Ten of 55 patients (18%) treated with Iodine-125 implantation and 7 of 39 patients (18%) externally irradiated were found to have positive biopsy specimens. Overall, clinical local failure occurred in 53% of patients with positive biopsy results but in only 18% with negative specimens, p = .006. The false negative biopsy rate in patients treated with I-125 was nearly three times that for external beam, 24% versus 9%, perhaps because of the greater possibility of inhomogeneous dose distribution with I-125, allowing for a higher degree of sampling error. Actuarial local failure at 5 years was 44% versus 8% with positive and negative biopsies, respectively, and 75% versus 24% at 10 years (p = .0001). The distant metastatic rate was twice as high in biopsy-positive as compared to biopsy-negative patients, 71% versus 35%, p = .015. Actuarially, only 19% of patients with a positive biopsy are NED at 10 years as compared to 62% of those with a negative biopsy (p = .0001). PSA values are supportive in those patients thought to be disease-free. The incidence of positive biopsy and associated local recurrence are in keeping with clinical treatment failure rates as reported in multiple studies to date.

Adenocarcinoma

Management of bleeding renal angiomyolipomas by transcatheter embolization following CT diagnosis.

Renal angiomyolipomas are commonly associated with spontaneous hemorrhage which can be life-threatening and may require radical nephrectomy for control of hemorrhage. Transcatheter embolization was used in 2 cases of spontaneously bleeding angiomyolipomas; permanent control was achieved in 1 case and temporary control in the other. This more conservative approach was made possible by our ability to diagnose these benign renal tumors confidently using computed tomography.

Aged

The use of spermatic cord lymphatics in the relief of surgically created lower extremity edema. A preliminary report of experiments in dogs.

When lower extremity lymphedema is not amenable to control by medical methods, attempts to ameliorate the problem surgically have generally been unsatisfactory. The intact testis and spermatic cord provide a potential bridge that may permit communication between the unobstructed lymphatics of the gonadal system and the obstructed lymphatics of the lower extremity. Preliminary experience in male dogs wherein lower extremity lymphedema is first induced surgically and is treated by testicular implantation into the edematous thigh shows that lympholymphatic communications between the lower extremity and the gonadal system may result.

Animals