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Abiraterone Acetate for Castrate Resistant Prostate Cancer

NCT01961843 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 40

Last updated 2025-11-25

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

This research study is a Pilot clinical trial. Pilot clinical trials often examine new tests (such as laboratory or radiology tests) in patients who receive either standard cancer treatments or new treatments that have been well-tested in many patients on other trials.

It is often difficult to determine how prostate cancer is going to behave when a new treatment is started. Physicians have no way to predict how a patient's tumor will respond to treatment. Although scientists have learned about changes that happen in tumors due to treatment, it is difficult to get cells from tumors because a biopsy (surgical procedure to remove a small piece of tissue) is needed.

This study will evaluate a method to detect tumor cells that are circulating in the blood without getting a biopsy. It is known that tumors shed a small number of cells into the blood stream every day. These are called circulating tumor cells or CTCs. Some early studies indicate the amount and type of CTCs in the blood can help determine the status of the tumor itself and the way it is responding to treatment. In this study, the investigators will examine protein levels in CTCs from patients' blood at different times before and after drug treatment to determine if they correlate with response to the drug. The new test will not affect whether subjects continue on the study drug.

Abiraterone acetate is a marketed drug that has been studied for the treatment of metastatic CRPC. It blocks the remaining or residual male hormones in the body that may be helping prostate cancer to grow. Abiraterone acetate is now FDA-approved for patients with metastatic CRPC who have not yet received docetaxel chemotherapy.

Abiraterone acetate has been used by a large number of participants in previous clinical trials. In most of these trials, participants with CRPC have been given abiraterone acetate with prednisone. Prednisone is a man-made hormone commonly referred to as a steroid. Prednisone has been approved in the US, Canada, and Europe for various disorders and diseases, such as asthma, Lupus and chronic obstructive lung disease. The combination of prednisone with abiraterone acetate has been approved for the treatment of CRPC. Prednisone together with abiraterone acetate will be given in this study in order to reduce or eliminate some side effects. Investigators will use patients' blood samples to study the genes (also called DNA) and their products (RNA and proteins) found in CTCs.

Conditions

Interventions

DRUG

Abiraterone

Abiraterone acetate is an orally bioavailable inhibitor of steroid synthesis, specifically testosterone synthesis.

DRUG

Prednisone

Prednisone is a synthetic corticosteroid that is co-administered with abiraterone acetate to offset the hypokalemia and hypertension side effects of abiraterone acetate.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Massachusetts General Hospital

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Richard Lee, MD, PhD · Massachusetts General Hospital

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
MALE
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2014-01-14
Primary Completion
2023-04-06
Completion
2024-05-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Drugs
Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01961843 on ClinicalTrials.gov