Video
Dr. Efstathiou on significance of genomic testing in prostate cancer
Author(s):
“We need to pursue further education in the field and reach out to every community practice and make them understand that we do now have the guidelines in place, the reimbursement in place, and cost is going down for actually adding system-wide germline and somatic testing for these patients,” says Eleni Efstathiou, MD, PhD.
Eleni Efstathiou, MD, PhD, medical oncologist, and section chief of Genitourinary Medical Oncology at Houston Methodist Cancer Center in Texas, discusses the critical importance of genomic testing in prostate cancer.
At the 2023 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, Efstathiou presenteddatafrom the second interim analysis of the phase 3 MAGNITUDE study (NCT03748641). The trial compared the PARP inhibitor niraparib (Zejula) plus abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) and prednisone versus abiraterone and prednisone alone in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and homologous recombination repair gene alterations.
Transcript
What we learned we learned—even when we were in school—is that patients, especially those who have germline alterations, such as BRCA, need special care and attention. If we're learning anything about the future, it is how we need to pursue further education in the field and reach out to every community practice and make them understand that we do now have the guidelines in place, the reimbursement in place, and cost is going down for actually adding system-wide germline and somatic testing for these patients. It's a service not just to them, it's also a service to their families for many, many reasons. So that's number one. That's easy. It sounds easy. It's not that easy. It's just getting through our heads that looking at a patient we need on their chart that information, as well, not just the usual information that we’ve used historically, we also need the genomic testing.
So that’s number one, and number two is how can we actually serve these men better? We have known that traditionally, in medicine and oncology, that the earlier you get to nip this at the bud, the better it is. So the next big question is, does it make sense to target these specific mutations in the hormone-naïve setting? That's a big question, because there's going to be efficacy and then safety—long-term exposure to these drugs. So that information is coming in a couple of years.
This transcript was edited for clarity.
