ABSTRACT
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed and the second most common cause of cancer death in men in North America (1). Many patients with localized disease have an excellent long-term survival and high cure rates with standard approaches (2). However, patients with high risk, locally advanced metastatic disease have a poor prognosis, and although hormonal therapy in the form of medical or surgical castration can induce significant long-term remissions, development of androgen-independent (AI) disease is inevitable. AI disease, also termed hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC), is clinically detected by a rise in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and/or worsening of symptoms while on hormone therapy. The current standard of care for HRPC is palliative in its intent and includes analgesia, radiation, and chemotherapy such as docetaxel (3,4). Thus, new and active agents are desperately needed for those patients at high risk of death from prostate cancer.
