Patients With Prostate Cancer and CVD at Increased Risk of Death When Prescribed Abiraterone Acetate

A study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting found that men with advanced prostate cancer and preexisting cardiovascular disease (CVD) have a higher risk of mortality when treated with abiraterone acetate (AA) for 6 months. “Our study highlights the importance of carefully monitoring patients after prescribing AA,” the researchers noted.

Researchers analyzed the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare database to identify patients with advanced prostate cancer diagnosed between January 1, 1991, and December 31, 2013, who were treated with AA between 2011 and 2014.

AACR 2019: Does Treatment With Abiraterone Acetate Benefit Patients With Advanced Prostate Cancer and Preexisting Cardiovascular Disease? – The ASCO Post. Big news, really important, congrats Dr.LuYao #KimmelCancerCtr #SKCC #yougotthis https://t.co/EjyN2IaAaq

— Andrew Chapman (@andrewchap361) February 28, 2019

Mortality increased in those with CVD

A total of 2,845 patients (median age, 75 years) were included, 1,924 (67.6%) of whom had at least one preexisting CVD condition, including acute myocardial infarction, atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure, stroke, and ischemic heart disease. Compared to the pretreatment period, the hospitalization incidence after starting AA increased by 58% to 88%. Men with no preexisting CVD had a 53% increase in hospitalization rate, while those with preexisting CVD had increase ranging from 34% to 55%.

The crude risk of 6-month overall mortality was between 21.4% and 25.6%. Comparatively, patients with no preexisting CVD condition had a crude risk of 6-month overall mortality of 15.8%.

“Our data show that patients who have preexisting CVD experienced higher mortality after receiving AA compared with those who do not and the bulk of the survival differences occurred in the first 6 months,” according to the authors.

Abiraterone acetate may increase risk of early death in prostate cancer patients w/ #CVD, study indicates. @medpagetoday https://t.co/KkLVHfhy0O pic.twitter.com/S76l5n25KJ

— ACC Media Center (@ACCmediacenter) February 28, 2019