Enzalutamide treats advanced prostate cancer and prolongs overall survival in patients. Moreover, it can inhibit the androgen receptor signaling pathway. This drives tumour growth by binding to the androgen receptor. However, the blocking helps to clear the cancer cells from the body. Using precision medicine, we can target the cancer cells and spare healthy cells. Also, it can decrease disease progression and load.
Understanding the Role of Androgens in Prostate Cancer
Androgens are known as the primary source of prostate cancer. Furthermore, it can control the growth of cancer cells by binding to androgen receptors. In addition, these receptors are present inside the tumor cells. This can help in increasing the growth signals and division process for cancer cells.
What Is Enzalutamide?
Enzalutamide is a targeted hormone therapy which acts as an androgen receptor inhibitor. Moreover, it can block male sex hormones which fuel cancer growth. The tablet should be taken whole with water and swallowed with food.
How Does Enzalutamide Work?
It works by blocking androgens to bind with androgen receptors in cancer cells. Also, these cancer cells actively use androgen to increase cancer division. These androgen receptors, after binding, enter the nucleus to enhance the growth of cancer from its DNA. However, this medicine blocks this process and halts the receptor from promoting cancer spread inside the body.
When Is Enzalutamide Used?
There are certain uses, like:
- Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
- Non-Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
- Metastatic Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer
- Advanced prostate cancer
Benefits of Enzalutamide Therapy
The benefits are as follows:
- Prolongs overall survival
- Decrease cancer progression
- Reduce cancer load
- Lower cancer spread
- Shrink the tumor
- Delays disease-related symptoms
Possible Side Effects
Most of the patients have side effects during the treatment. Moreover, the side effects can leave when the body adapts to the medicine.
Common side effects
- Fatigue
- Tiredness
- Joint pain
- Diarrhea
- Hot flashes
- Headaches
- Dizziness
- Tingling
- Muscle weakness
Serious side effects
- Seizures
- Heart Problems
- Falls and Fractures
- Allergic Reactions
What are the brands?
Monitoring During Treatment
Doctors use different methods to monitor the treatment effect and response in the patient. Also, it can help the doctors in deciding the course of therapy. This can improve the treatment path and increase the chances of treating the disease. There are certain ways in which doctors monitor patients. They are:
- Checking PSA levels, Imaging and Symptom Tracking
- Safety and Toxicity Monitoring
- Drug Interactions and Dose Adjustments
Interaction with other medicines
Combination therapy is one of the methods which help patients to target multiple areas in treatment. Moreover, it can help them to increase the chances of survival by completely clearing out the cancer from the body. In addition, doctors will do complete medical check-ups before suggesting any mix of medicines. This can help them to improve therapy results.
Conclusion
Prostate cancer is one of the major cancers that occur in men. Therapies like targeted therapy and androgen receptor blocking help patients to recover from disease. Also, this can help them to treat and manage prostate cancer symptoms. The medicine can bind to the androgen receptor and block growth signals for cancer cells. Furthermore, this can help to decrease disease spread and load in the body.
FAQs
Why is prostate cancer caused in men after the age of 50?
After the age of 50, patients can undergo cellular wear-and-tear and slower DNA repair. Moreover, this can cause hormonal changes, genetic mutations and skin problems. Therefore, it is advised to take constant check-ups to avoid severe side effects.
How does this medicine cause hot flashes?
The medicine can block the androgen receptor in which the androgen binds. Furthermore, the binding aids in cancer growth and division. Thus, blocking male sex hormones from binding to receptors causes a decrease in androgen signaling. Therefore, it can confuse the brain and can cause heating and sweating.
References
- Gibbons, J. A., Ouatas, T., Krauwinkel, W., Ohtsu, Y., van der Walt, J. S., Beddo, V., … & Mordenti, J. (2015). Clinical pharmacokinetic studies of enzalutamide. Clinical pharmacokinetics, 54(10), 1043-1055. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40262-015-0271-5
- Hussain, M., Fizazi, K., Saad, F., Rathenborg, P., Shore, N., Ferreira, U., … & Sternberg, C. N. (2018). Enzalutamide in men with nonmetastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer. New England Journal of Medicine, 378(26), 2465-2474. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1800536
- Scher, H. I., Fizazi, K., Saad, F., Taplin, M. E., Sternberg, C. N., Miller, K., … & de Bono, J. S. (2012). Increased survival with enzalutamide in prostate cancer after chemotherapy. New England Journal of Medicine, 367(13), 1187-1197. b https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1207506
- Scott, L. J. (2018). Enzalutamide: A Review in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer. Drugs, 78(18), 1913. https://openurl.ebsco.com/EPDB%3Agcd%3A12%3A29953196/detailv2?sid=ebsco%3Aplink%3Acrawler-gcd&id=ebsco%3Agcd%3A133570166&crl=c&jrnl=00126667&link_origin=scholar.google.com
- Traina, T. A., Miller, K., Yardley, D. A., Eakle, J., Schwartzberg, L. S., O’Shaughnessy, J., … & Cortes, J. (2018). Enzalutamide for the treatment of androgen receptor–expressing triple-negative breast cancer. Journal of clinical oncology, 36(9), 884-890. https://ascopubs.org/doi/abs/10.1200/jco.2016.71.3495
