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Baseline serum testosterone and differential efficacy of bipolar androgen therapy and enzalutamide in the randomized TRANSFORMER trial

Kanayama M, Tsai HL, Wang H, Antonarakis ES, Denmeade SR, Luo J

Prostate cancer and prostatic diseases, 2025

101 participants

Abstract

Bipolar androgen therapy (BAT) is effective in a subset of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients. Treatment selection biomarkers are needed due to other therapies that can be equally efficacious. We performed post-hoc analysis to determine whether baseline serum testosterone (T) is a treatment selection marker in the TRANSFORMER study, a randomized trial of abiraterone-pretreated mCRPC patients assigned to BAT (n = 94) or enzalutamide (n = 101). The findings suggest that patients with poor outcomes to abiraterone and serum T ≥ 20 ng/dL may benefit preferentially from BAT over enzalutamide. Baseline testosterone could be considered in the treatment selection process when BAT is an option.

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design. Reported size: 101 participants or records.

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