Cancer Treatment Today

Both Leukine and thalidomide are investigational for prostate cancer, singly or together.

Much research had gone on about the effects of thalidomide and the related drug Revlimid on prostate cancer. A new randomized phase 2 study has recently been published. Thalidomide may have use in the treatment of men who have biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer or a rise in their prostate-specific antigen (PSA) count after definitive therapy, according to this study from the National Cancer Institute. In this population, the use of thalidomide was associated with an increase in PSA progression-free survival after intermittent androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT). Thalidomide is listed by AHFS and in Micromedex. However, in this case PSA does not appear to be rising.

Granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor is a pleiotropic cytokine capable of inducing systemic immune responses against experimental and human tumors. GM-CSF stimulates the differentiation of hematopoietic progenitors to monocytes and neutrophils, and reduces the risk for febrile neutropenia in cancer patients. GM-CSF also has been shown to induce the differentiation of myeloid dendritic cells (DCs) that promote the development of T-helper type 1 (cellular) immune responses in cognate T cells. GM-CSF has been used to augment the activity of rituximab in patients with follicular lymphoma and to induce autologous antitumor immunity in patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer. A number of studies and reports focus on its activity, alone or in combination, for prostate cancer. It has been used with thalidomide, revlimid, provenge and a variety of other drugs and vaccines as an immunolodulator.

For that two together, a study had been competed but not yet published and another study is ongoing: Lenalidomide and GM-CSF in Treating Patients With Prostate Cancer NCT00939510

J. A. Garcia, P. Triozzi, S. Smith, B. I. Rini, T. Gilligan, D. Peereboom, P. Elson, E. Klein, R. Dreicer Abstract Phase I/II study of lenalidomide and GM-CSF in hormone refractory prostate cancer (HRPC). No: 229 2007 Prostate Cancer Symposium

Prostate Cancer Immunology: Biology, Therapeutics, and Challenges
W. S. Webster, E. J. Small, B. I. Rini, and E. D. Kwon
JCO November 10, 2005 23:8262-8269

Immunotherapeutics in Development for Prostate Cancer
A. L. Harzstark andE. J. Small
The Oncologist April 1, 2009 14:391-398

Figg WD, Dahut W, Duray P, Hamilton M, Tompkins A, Steinberg SM, Jones E, Premkumar A, Linehan WM, Floeter MK, Chen CC, Dixon S, Kohler DR, Kruger EA, Gubish E, Pluda JM, Reed E (2001) A randomized phase II trial of thalidomide, an angiogenesis inhibitor, in patients with androgen-independent prostate cancer. Clin Cancer Res 7: 1888–1893