Triple drug combo prolongs survival in men with metastatic, hormone-sensitive prostate cancer

Survival rates in the two groups were compared after 533 patients had died. Patients were followed for a median of approximately 3.5 years, and those who received darolutamide had a 32.5% lower risk of dying during that time than patients not taking darolutamide. Patients taking darolutamide also experienced greater delays in developing castration-resistant prostate cancer (which no longer responds to treatments that lower testosterone), pain, and the need for other anti-cancer therapies. The combination of three medications did not result in more toxic effects compared with the combination of androgen-deprivation therapy and docetaxel alone.

"Despite progress in recent years, survival is short for patients with metastatic prostate cancer. Results from ARASENS are an important step forward, and triplet therapy with darolutamide should become a new standard of care for the treatment of patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer," says lead author Matthew R. Smith, MD, PhD, director of the Genitourinary Oncology Program at the Mass General Cancer Center and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.