Targeting Advanced Prostate Cancer Patients with PTEN Loss

Despite improvements in therapy options and survival for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), it remains an incurable disease. Next generation therapies targeting the androgen receptor (AR) have proven value, but development of resistance to agents such as abiraterone is universal.

Loss of PTEN tumor suppressor function occurs in approximately 50% of patients with mCRPC, which leads to AKT signaling and reduced benefit from AR blockade. Ipatasertib, a small molecule inhibitor of AKT, has demonstrated provocative activity in combination with abiraterone in patients with PTEN loss.

In an industry-funded international phase III study, researchers randomized 1101 men with previously untreated mCRPC and good performance status …