Skip to main content
PLOS One logoLink to PLOS One
. 2021 Oct 1;16(10):e0258160. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258160

Initial dose reduction of enzalutamide does not decrease the incidence of adverse events in castration-resistant prostate cancer

Shunsuke Tsuzuki 1, Shotaro Nakanishi 2, Mitsuyoshi Tamaki 2,3, Takuma Oshiro 2,3, Jun Miki 1, Hiroki Yamada 1, Tatsuya Shimomura 1, Takahiro Kimura 1,*, Nozomu Furuta 1, Seiichi Saito 2, Shin Egawa 1
Editor: Henry Woo4
PMCID: PMC8486121  PMID: 34597353

Abstract

Background

There was no clear evidence whether the initial dose of enzalutamide affects the incidence of adverse events (AEs), and oncological outcome in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).

Methods

The clinical charts of 233 patients with CRPC treated with enzalutamide were reviewed retrospectively. After 1:3 propensity score matching (PSM), 124 patients were divided into a reduced dose group and a standard dose group, and the prostate specific antigen (PSA) response and the incidence of AEs were compared.

Results

190 patients with CRPC initiated with standard dose enzalutamide were younger and better performance status compared with 43 patients beginning with reduced dose. After PSM, the baseline characteristics were not different between the standard and the reduced dose group. In the PSM cohort, the PSA response rate was significantly lower in the reduced dose group than in the standard dose group (-66.3% and -87.4%, p = 0.02). The incidence rates of AEs were not statistically different between the groups (22.6% and 34.4%, respectively, p = 0.24).

Conclusion

Initiating treatment with a reduced dose of enzalutamide did not significantly decrease the incidence rate of AEs, and it showed poorer PSA response rate. There is no clear rationale for treating with a reduced initial dose of enzalutamide to reduce the incidence of AEs.

Introduction

Prostate cancer (PC) is the most common type of cancer among elderly men worldwide [1]. Overall, 7%–15% of patients with PC are initially diagnosed with metastatic PC and treated initially with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) [2]. In addition, 20%–50% of non-metastatic PC patients treated with surgery or radiation have biochemical recurrence and are administered ADT [3]. Ultimately, these patients administered ADT develop castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) within two years.

Enzalutamide, a next-generation androgen receptor (AR)-targeted agent, was approved for metastatic CRPC based on the results of phase 3 double-blind, randomised trials (PREVAIL and AFFIRM) [4, 5]. In these trials, enzalutamide significantly prolonged patient survival compared to placebo in both pre- and post-chemotherapy settings. More recently, phase 3 trials showed the efficacy of enzalutamide for non-metastatic CRPC and metastatic castration-sensitive PC [68]. A wide variety of adverse events (AEs), such as fatigue, decreased appetite, and hypertension, were reported in the trials. In both trials for metastatic CRPC, >90% of patients in the enzalutamide arm experienced AEs of any grade, and >40% experienced AEs of grade ≥3 [4, 5]. A similar tendency was observed in the subgroup analysis of a Japanese cohort in the PREVAIL trial. In detail, approximately 95% of patients in the enzalutamide arm had varying severity of AEs such as decreased appetite, weight loss, and fatigue [9]. Among such AEs, fatigue is the most frequent, with an incidence of 35.6% and 21.4% in the overall population and the Japanese subgroup of the PREVAIL trial, respectively [4, 9].

Patients sometimes require dose reduction or discontinuation of enzalutamide because of severe AEs [10]. Thus, the initial starting dose is sometimes reduced for patients with older age or poorer performance status (PS) in order to minimise the occurrence of AEs and to prolong the treatment period in real-world practice. A retrospective study of Japanese patients with CRPC reported that age >75 years was positively associated, and a lower initial dose of enzalutamide was negatively associated, with the occurrence of AEs [11]. Another retrospective study reported that efficacy of low-dose enzalutamide in terms of prostate specific antigen (PSA) response and PSA progression-free survival (PFS) was not statistically inferior to that of the standard dose in patients with metastatic CRPC aged ≥75 years [12]. However, significant biases should exist regarding patient background between the patients with the low and standard initial doses in both retrospective studies, and the influence of initial dose reduction on efficacy and safety remain to be well elucidated. Therefore, we aimed to investigate whether the initial dose of enzalutamide affects the incidence of AEs and oncological outcome in patients with CRPC by propensity score matching (PSM).

Materials and methods

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of both The Jikei University School of Medicine ((30-390(9411)) and University of the Ryukyus, Graduate School of Medicine. The requirement for informed patient consent was waived due to the study’s retrospective design.

Patients and study design

We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of patients with CRPC treated with enzalutamide from June 2014 to December 2018 at The Jikei University Hospitals and University of the Ryukyus, Graduate School of Medicine and its affiliated institution. Patients were excluded from this study based on the following criteria: 1) lack of clinical information, 2) short follow-up periods (<1 month), and 3) prior treatment with abiraterone acetate. Ultimately, 233 patients were enrolled in this study. The initial dose of enzalutamide was decided based on an individual patient’s condition and the institutional policies, i.e., one institution (JU) used the standard dose and the other (RU) used a reduced dose as the starting dose in general. Patients were classified based on initial use of the standard dose or a reduced dose of enzalutamide, and the efficacy and safety of each dose were compared. The treatment sequence for CRPC was essentially decided according to the guidelines [13]. CRPC was defined according to the guidelines of the Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Working Group 2 (PCWG2) [14]. PSA progression after enzalutamide treatment was defined according to the PCWG2 criteria [14]. In this study, the discontinuation of enzalutamide treatment either temporarily or permanently due to the occurrence of any AEs was used as the categorical variable in the Cox regression analyses.

Statistical analysis

The patients’ characteristics in the standard and reduced dose groups shown in Tables 1 and 2 were compared using the chi-square test and t-test. The propensity score for selecting the standard or reduced dose of enzalutamide was calculated; thereafter, 1:3 ratios of k-neighbour PSM was performed to reduce the variance of the baseline characteristics between the groups. The association of the initial dose of enzalutamide with PSA-PFS was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were conducted to identify the independent factors for PSA-PFS. All data were analyzed using STATA 14 (Stata Corp., College Station, TX). Differences were considered significant if the two-sided p-values were <0.05.

Table 1. Baseline characteristics of 233 CRPC patients based on initial dose of enzalutamide.

Variables Total Number (%) Initial dose of Enzalutamide P value
40-120mg 160mg
Number (%) Number (%)
Number of patients 233 43 (18.5) 190 (81.5)
Median age (IQR) 77 (70–81.5) 81 (76–84) 76 (69–80) <0.01
Median PSA(IQR) 14.4(6.2–52.4) 13.2(7.2–49.7) 14.9 (5.2–54.6) 0.55
GS 0.73
6–7 40 (17.2) 6 (14.0) 34 (17.9)
8 38 (16.3) 11 (25.6) 27 (14.2)
9–10 107 (45.9) 20 (46.4) 87 (45.8)
NA 48 (20.6) 6 (14.0) 42 (22.1)
PS <0.01
0–1 218 (93.6) 34 (79.1) 184 (96.8)
2–4 15 (6.4) 9 (20.9) 6 (3.2)
cT stage 0.92
Tx 33 (16.3) 6 (14.0) 27 (14.2)
T1-2 108 (44.2) 19 (44.1) 89 (46.9)
T3-4 92 (39.5) 18 (41.9) 74 (38.9)
cN stage 0.94
0 158(67.8) 29 (67.4) 129 (67.9)
1 75 (32.2) 14 (32.6) 61 (32.1)
cM stage 0.66
0-1a 95 (40.8) 19 (44.2) 76 (40.0)
1b-c 138 (59.2) 24 (55.8) 114 (60.0)
Median time to CRPC (IQR) 18.5 (10–37) 16.5 (9.5–46.5) 19.5(10–36) 0.59
Prior DTX 60 (25.8) 7 (16.3) 53 (27.9) 0.09
With Steroid Therapy 43 (18.5) 10 (23.3) 33 (17.4) 0.38
With BMA 45 (23.6) 12 (27.9) 33 (17.4) 0.12

IQR = interquartile range, NA = not available, CRPC = castration resistant prostate cancer, DTX: docetaxel, BMA = bone modifying agent.

Table 2. Baseline characteristics of 124 CRPC patients after PSM.

Variables Total Initial dose of Enzalutamide P value
40-120mg 160mg
Number of patients 124 31 93
Median age (IQR) 78.5 (74–82.5) 79 (74–82) 78 (74–83) 0.55
Median PSA(IQR) 14.7 (7.3–46.3) 13.6 (9.1–46.5) 14.9 (7.1–45.0) 0.49
GS 0.95
6–7 19 (15.3) 4 (12.9) 15 (16.1)
8 19 (15.3) 6 (19.4) 13 (14.0)
9–10 59 (47.6) 16 (51.6) 43 (46.2)
NA 27 (21.8) 5 (16.1) 22 (23.7)
PS 0.50
0–1 117 (94.4) 30 (96.8) 87 (93.5)
2–4 7 (5.6) 1 (3.2) 6 (6.5)
cT stage 0.63
Tx 16 (12.9) 3 (9.7) 13 (14.0)
T1-2 71 (60.5) 20 (64.5) 51 (54.8)
T3-4 33 (26.6) 8 (25.8) 29 (31.2)
cN stage 0.58
0 85 (68.5) 20 (64.5) 65 (69.9)
1 39 (31.5) 11 (35.5) 28 (30.1)
cM stage 0.34
0-1a 51 (41.1) 15 (48.4) 36 (38.7)
1b-c 73 (58.9) 16 (51.6) 57 (61.3)
Median time to CRPC (IQR) 19 (10–37) 15.0 (9–39) 20.5 (12–36.5) 0.58
Prior DTX 27 (21.8) 6 (19.4) 21 (21.5) 0.71
With Steroid Therapy 25 (20.2) 6 (19.4) 19 (20.4) 0.90
With BMA 30(24.2) 7 (22.6) 23 (24.7) 0.75

IQR = interquartile range, NA = not available, CRPC = castration resistant prostate cancer, DTX: Docetaxel, BMA = bone modifying agent.

Results

The baseline characteristics of the 233 patients are listed in Table 1.

The patients’ median age was 77 years (interquartile range [IQR], 70–81.5 years), and median PSA level before enzalutamide treatment was 14.4 ng/mL (IQR, 6.20–52.4 ng/mL). Among the 233 patients, 42% had undergone local therapies, such as prostatectomy or radiotherapy. Approximately 70% of the patients were initially treated with ADT plus bicalutamide, and the median time to CRPC was 18.5 months. Regarding the allocation of patients based on the initial dose of enzalutamide, 190 (81.6%), 25 (10.7%), 15 (6.4%), and 3 (1.3%) patients were administered 160, 120, 80, and 40 mg of enzalutamide, respectively. When stratifying the patients to the standard or reduced dose group, the patients in the reduced dose group were significantly older and had poorer PS than those in the standard dose group (Table 1). Although it was not statistically significant difference, the median time to CRPC in reduced dose group was shorter than that of the standard dose group (16.5 vs 19.5months, respectively).

The patients’ baseline characteristics after PSM are shown in Table 2.

After 1:3 PSM, 31 and 93 patients were stratified to the reduced and the standard dose groups, respectively. The baseline characteristics were not significantly different between the groups.

In the PSM cohort, the PSA response after enzalutamide treatment is shown in Table 3 and Fig 1.

Table 3. Efficacy of enzalutamide treatment based on initial dose of enzalutamide.

Variables Total Initial dose of Enzalutamide P value
40-120mg 160mg
Dose reduction 0.10
None 90 (72.6) 26 (83.9) 64 (68.8)
Yes 34 (27.4) 5 (16.1) 29 (31.2)
Discontinued *1 0.25
None 114 (81.9) 30 (96.8) 84 (90.3)
Yes 10 (8.1) 1 (3.2) 9 (9.7)
% PSA decline (IQR) *2 83.3(34.7–97.4) 66.3(24.1–94.9) 87.4(46.2–97.7) 0.02
50% PSA response *2 76 (61.3) 16 (51.6) 60 (64.5) 0.20
90% PSA response *2 51 (41.1) 8 (25.8) 43 (46.2) 0.03
Median time to PSA nadir(IQR) 2 (1–5) 2(1–5) 3(1–5) 0.10
Median time to PSA progression (range) 6 (1–58) 5 (1–24) 8 (1–58) 0.10

PSA = prostate specific antigen, IQR = interquartile range,

*1 due to any adverse events,

*2 at the best response.

Fig 1. Waterfall plots of PSA response after enzalutamide according to initial dose of enzalutamide in 124 CRPC patients.

Fig 1

The PSA response rate after enzalutamide treatment was significantly higher in the standard dose group than in the reduced dose group (-87.4% and -66.3%, respectively, p = 0.02). The proportion of patients with a PSA decline of >90% was significantly higher in the standard dose group than in the reduced dose group (46.2% and 25.8%, respectively, p = 0.03). The median follow-up period was 17 months. Overall, 84 patients (67.7%) had PSA progression and 24 patients (19.4%) died due to any cause. The Kaplan-Meier curves for PSA-PFS according to the initial dose of enzalutamide are presented in Fig 2. The median time to PSA progression in the standard group tended to be longer than in the reduced dose group, but the difference was not statistically significant (8 and 6 months, respectively, p = 0.10, Table 3). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were conducted to investigate the independent prognostic factors for PSA-PFS. The results are summarised in Table 4.

Fig 2. Kaplan-Meier curves for PSA progression-free survival according to initial dose of enzalutamide in 124 CRPC patients.

Fig 2

Table 4. Univariable and multivariable Cox regression analyses for the prediction of PSA progression-free survival in 124 CRPC patients treated with enzalutamide.

Variable PSA progression
Univariable Multivariable
HR (95%CI) P-value HR (95%CI) P-value
Prior local therapy 0.91(0.71–1.17) 0.46
Time to CRPC <12m 3.04(1.89–4.91) <0.01 2.55(1.53–4.23) <0.01
Age (continuous) 1.00(0.97–1.04) 0.80
PSA #1 (continuous) 1.00(1.00–1.00) <0.01 1.00(0.99–1.00) 0.42
PS2-4 (ref:0–1) 0.74(0.18–3.02) 0.68
cT3-4 (ref:cTx-2) 1.23(0.87–1.73) 0.24
cN1 (ref:N0) 1.92(1.23–3.00) <0.01 1.55(0.96–2.51) 0.08
cM1b-c (ref: M0-1a) 1.15(0.75–1.77) 0.53
Prior DTX (ref:none) 2.16(1.31–3.54) <0.01 1.58(0.86–2.88) 0.14
Steroid (ref:none) 1.67(1.00–2.77) 0.05 1.28(0.72–2.26)- 0.41-
BMA (ref:none) 1.18(0.73–1.93) 0.49
Initial Enz dose (ref:standard) 1.45(0.96–2.31) 0.12 - -

HR = Hazard Ratio; CI = Confidence Interval; #1: PSA before enzalutamide treatment, BMA = bone modifying agent, Enz: enzalutamide, DTX: docetaxel.

The initial dose of enzalutamide was not a significant predictive factor for PSA-PFS. In the multivariate analyses, time to CRPC within 12 months was the independent predictive factor for PSA progression (hazard ratio, 2.55; 95% confidence interval, 1.53–4.23; p<0.01).

During the follow-up period, the proportion of patients requiring a dose reduction due to AEs tended to be higher in the standard dose group than in the reduced dose group, even though the difference was not statistically significant (31.2% and 16.1%, respectively, p = 0.10). Moreover, the discontinuation rate of enzalutamide due to AEs was not significantly different between the groups (9.7% and 3.2%, respectively, p = 0.25). The AE profile of the patients is presented in Tables 5 and 6.

Table 5. Any grade of adverse events (AE) based on initial dose of enzalutamide.

Variables Total Initial dose of Enzalutamide P value
40-120mg 160mg
Number of patients 124 31 93
Incidence of AE
All grade 39 (31.5 7 (22.6) 32(34.4) 0.24
Grade3-5 11 (8.9) 2 (6.5) 9 (9.7) 0.61

Table 6. Profile of adverse events (AE) based on initial dose of enzalutamide.

Initial dose of enzalutamide 40-120mg 160mg
Adverse Event All grade  G3-5  All grade  G3-5
Fatigue 2 (6.5) 2 (6.5) 15(16.1) 4(4.3)
Appetite loss 4 (12.9) 0 10 (10.8) 3 (3.2)
Rush 0 0 1 (1.1) 0
AST/ALT increased 1 (3.2) 0 1 (1.1) 0
Nausea 0 0 5 (5.4) 0
Diarrhoea 0 0 3 (3.2) 0
Hypertension 0 0 1 (1.1) 1(1.1)
Dysgeusia 0 0 1(1.1) 0
Edema 0 0 2 (2.2) 0
Stiffness 0 0 1(1.1) 1(1.1)

The incidence rates of AEs of any grade and grades 3–5 were 30.2% and 8.9%, respectively, in the entire cohort. Fatigue and appetite loss were frequent AEs observed in this cohort (Table 6). The incidences of AEs of any grade and grade 3–5 were not significantly different between the standard and reduced dose groups (34.4% and 22.6%, and 9.7% and 6.5%, p = 0.24 and 0.61, respectively).

Discussion

In the present study, we assessed the influence of the initial dose of enzalutamide on the oncological outcome and incidence of AEs in patients with CRPC. The results of the PSM cohort indicated that the PSA response after enzalutamide treatment was lower in the reduced dose group than in the standard dose group even though the PSA-PFS was not statistically different. On the other hand, the incidence and severity of AEs were not significantly different between the groups.

A dose escalation study of enzalutamide (30–360 mg per day) was conducted in previous preliminary and phase 1–2 trials, which found a dose-dependent increase of enzalutamide in the plasma [15, 16]. In fact, the dose dependency of enzalutamide in the percentage change of PSA from baseline was observed in the phase 1–2 study [16]. The proportion of patients with a PSA decline of >50% was lower in the patients who received 60 mg per day of enzalutamide than in those who received higher doses (>150 mg per day) [16]. Likewise, a dose dependency of enzalutamide was observed for the incidence of AE in the phase 1–2 study. Patients administered ≤150 mg per day of enzalutamide did not complain of fatigue or require discontinuation of treatment due to AEs [16]. Thus, the standard dose of enzalutamide was set as 160 mg per day.

However, there are a number of patients with severe AEs after administration of the standard dose of enzalutamide in real-world practice. Actually, 8.9% of patients had grade 3–5 AEs in the present study, even though the incidence was not higher than that of the previous phase 3 study [9]. To minimise the incidence and severity of AEs and to prolong the treatment period, some clinicians introduce enzalutamide with a reduced starting dose, even though the reduced dose might lead to insufficient treatment efficacy. The results of this study indicated that reducing the initial dose of enzalutamide did not decrease the incidence of AEs and might impair the efficacy.

Terada et al. retrospectively investigated 345 Japanese patients with CRPC and indicated that the lower initial dose of enzalutamide was negatively associated with the occurrence of AEs in the multivariate analysis [11]. However, the initial dose was decided according to the individual patient’s condition, and significant biases should exist in this study. Regarding that point, the strength of the present study was that PSM was conducted to minimise the biases related to patients’ backgrounds between the standard and reduced dose groups. The incidence of grade 3–5 AEs was generally very low in this study (9.7% and 6.5% in the standard and reduced dose groups, respectively). Nevertheless, 8.1% of the patients preferred to discontinue the enzalutamide treatment due to AEs. Regarding the median time to discontinuation of the enzalutamide treatment, no statistical difference was found between the groups (7.0 and 6.5 months, respectively; p = 0.48), suggesting that the initial dose reduction of enzalutamide might not prolong its treatment duration.

In this study, the PSA response rate after enzalutamide treatment was significantly higher, and the proportion of patients with a PSA decline of >90% was significantly higher, in the standard dose group than in the reduced dose group. The PSA response after enzalutamide was reported to be a predictor for radiographic PFS and OS [17]. The efficacy of enzalutamide might be impaired by reducing the initial dose, even though the PSA-PFS was not statistically different in this study, possibly because of the limited number of patients and events. Vinh-Hung et al. reported a retrospective study investigating the efficacy of low-dose enzalutamide in patients aged ≥75 years with metastatic CRPC and concluded that PSA response and PSA-PFS were not significantly different between the low dose and the standard dose groups [12]. However, this retrospective study was limited in that 55 patients were stratified to 16 low dose and 43 standard dose groups. Thus, we considered that introducing the enzalutamide with a reduced dose might impair the efficacy. Dose reduction or temporary discontinuation of enzalutamide should be considered if the patients develop AEs.

In this study, the multivariate analysis revealed that the time to CRPC within 12 months was the independent predictive factor for poorer PSA-PFS. This finding was consistent with those of previous reports [5, 18, 19].

This study has several limitations. First, it was a retrospective study with a small sample size; thus, selection bias might have been introduced even though PSM was conducted to minimise the bias. Second, AEs were observed in only 31.5% of the patients, which might be due to the retrospective design of this study. However, the data for patients with AEs of grade 3 or higher should be reliable. Third, the short follow-up period might have affected the results of the oncological outcome. Finally, due to the small number of patients analyzed, we did not divide the patients with CRPC according to the history of prior chemotherapy. Despite these limitations, the present work is a unique study that investigated the relation of the initial dose of enzalutamide to the oncological outcomes and incidence of AEs in the PSM cohort. We believe that our data will be useful in daily clinical practice. A further external validation cohort and prospective study are warranted in the future.

Conclusions

Initiating treatment with a reduced dose of enzalutamide did not significantly decrease the incidence rate of AEs, and it showed poorer PSA response rate. There is no clear rationale for treatment with a reduced initial dose of enzalutamide to reduce the incidence of AEs.

Supporting information

S1 File. Anonymized data set.

(XLSX)

Data Availability

All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.

Funding Statement

The authors received no specific funding for this work.

References

  • 1.Siegel RL, Miller KD, Jemal A. Cancer statistics, 2020. CA Cancer J Clin. 2020;70(1):7–30. Epub 2020/01/09. doi: 10.3322/caac.21590 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 2.Helgstrand JT, Røder MA, Klemann N, Toft BG, Lichtensztajn DY, Brooks JD, et al. Trends in incidence and 5-year mortality in men with newly diagnosed, metastatic prostate cancer-A population-based analysis of 2 national cohorts. Cancer. 2018;124(14):2931–8. Epub 2018/05/04. doi: 10.1002/cncr.31384 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 3.Artibani W, Porcaro AB, De Marco V, Cerruto MA, Siracusano S. Management of Biochemical Recurrence after Primary Curative Treatment for Prostate Cancer: A Review. Urol Int. 2018;100(3):251–62. Epub 2017/11/22. doi: 10.1159/000481438 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 4.Beer TM, Armstrong AJ, Rathkopf DE, Loriot Y, Sternberg CN, Higano CS, et al. Enzalutamide in metastatic prostate cancer before chemotherapy. N Engl J Med. 2014;371(5):424–33. Epub 2014/06/03. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1405095 ; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4418931. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 5.Scher HI, Fizazi K, Saad F, Taplin ME, Sternberg CN, Miller K, et al. Increased survival with enzalutamide in prostate cancer after chemotherapy. N Engl J Med. 2012;367(13):1187–97. Epub 2012/08/17. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1207506 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 6.Armstrong AJ, Szmulewitz RZ, Petrylak DP, Holzbeierlein J, Villers A, Azad A, et al. ARCHES: A Randomized, Phase III Study of Androgen Deprivation Therapy With Enzalutamide or Placebo in Men With Metastatic Hormone-Sensitive Prostate Cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2019;37(32):2974–86. Epub 2019/07/23. doi: 10.1200/JCO.19.00799 ; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6839905. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 7.Davis ID, Martin AJ, Stockler MR, Begbie S, Chi KN, Chowdhury S, et al. Enzalutamide with Standard First-Line Therapy in Metastatic Prostate Cancer. N Engl J Med. 2019;381(2):121–31. Epub 2019/06/04. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1903835 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 8.Hussain M, Fizazi K, Saad F, Rathenborg P, Shore N, Ferreira U, et al. Enzalutamide in Men with Nonmetastatic, Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer. N Engl J Med. 2018;378(26):2465–74. Epub 2018/06/28. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1800536 . [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 9.Kimura G, Yonese J, Fukagai T, Kamba T, Nishimura K, Nozawa M, et al. Enzalutamide in Japanese patients with chemotherapy-naïve, metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer: A post-hoc analysis of the placebo-controlled PREVAIL trial. Int J Urol. 2016;23(5):395–403. Epub 2016/03/29. doi: 10.1111/iju.13072 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 10.Joshua AM, Shore ND, Saad F, Chi KN, Olsson CA, Emmenegger U, et al. Safety of enzalutamide in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer previously treated with docetaxel: expanded access in North America. Prostate. 2015;75(8):836–44. Epub 2015/02/17. doi: 10.1002/pros.22965 ; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5024054. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 11.Terada N, Akamatsu S, Okada Y, Negoro H, Kobayashi T, Yamasaki T, et al. Factors predicting efficacy and adverse effects of enzalutamide in Japanese patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer: results of retrospective multi-institutional study. Int J Clin Oncol. 2016;21(6):1155–61. Epub 2016/06/29. doi: 10.1007/s10147-016-1004-y . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 12.Vinh-Hung V, Natchagande G, Joachim C, Gorobets O, Drame M, Bougas S, et al. Low-Dose Enzalutamide in Late-Elderly Patients (≥ 75 Years Old) Presenting With Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer. Clin Genitourin Cancer. 2020. Epub 2020/05/18. doi: 10.1016/j.clgc.2020.03.019. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 13.Mohler JL, Antonarakis ES, Armstrong AJ, D’Amico AV, Davis BJ, Dorff T, et al. Prostate Cancer, Version 2.2019, NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology. J Natl Compr Canc Netw. 2019;17(5):479–505. Epub 2019/05/16. doi: 10.6004/jnccn.2019.0023 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 14.Scher HI, Halabi S, Tannock I, Morris M, Sternberg CN, Carducci MA, et al. Design and end points of clinical trials for patients with progressive prostate cancer and castrate levels of testosterone: recommendations of the Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Working Group. J Clin Oncol. 2008;26(7):1148–59. Epub 2008/03/04. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2007.12.4487 ; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4010133. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 15.Gibbons JA, Ouatas T, Krauwinkel W, Ohtsu Y, van der Walt JS, Beddo V, et al. Clinical Pharmacokinetic Studies of Enzalutamide. Clin Pharmacokinet. 2015;54(10):1043–55. Epub 2015/04/29. doi: 10.1007/s40262-015-0271-5 ; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4580721. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 16.Scher HI, Beer TM, Higano CS, Anand A, Taplin ME, Efstathiou E, et al. Antitumour activity of MDV3100 in castration-resistant prostate cancer: a phase 1–2 study. Lancet. 2010;375(9724):1437–46. Epub 2010/04/20. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60172-9 ; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2948179. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 17.Kato H, Furuya Y, Miyazawa Y, Miyao T, Syuto T, Nomura M, et al. Consequences of an Early PSA Response to Enzalutamide Treatment for Japanese Patients with Metastatic Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer. Anticancer Res. 2016;36(11):6141–9. Epub 2016/10/30. doi: 10.21873/anticanres.11205 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 18.Miyazawa Y, Sekine Y, Shimizu N, Takezawa Y, Nakamura T, Miyao T, et al. An exploratory retrospective multicenter study of prognostic factors in mCRPC patients undergoing enzalutamide treatment: Focus on early PSA decline and kinetics at time of progression. Prostate. 2019;79(12):1462–70. Epub 2019/07/25. doi: 10.1002/pros.23865 . [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 19.Rodriguez-Vida A, Galazi M, Rudman S, Chowdhury S, Sternberg CN. Enzalutamide for the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Drug Des Devel Ther. 2015;9:3325–39. Epub 2015/07/15. doi: 10.2147/DDDT.S69433 ; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4492664. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Decision Letter 0

Henry Woo

20 Aug 2021

PONE-D-21-17359

Initial dose reduction of enzalutamide does not decrease the incidence of adverse events in castration-resistant prostate cancer

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Tsuzuki,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Oct 03 2021 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

  • A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.

  • A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.

  • An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Henry Woo

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements.

1. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at 

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and 

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf

2. Thank you for stating the following in the Competing Interests section: 

I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests:Shin Egawa is a paid consultant/advisor of Takeda, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Sanofi, Janssen, and Pfizer. Takahiro Kimura is a paid consultant/advisor of Astellas, Bayer, Janssen and Sanofi. 

Please confirm that this does not alter your adherence to all PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, by including the following statement: "This does not alter our adherence to  PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.” (as detailed online in our guide for authors http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/competing-interests).  If there are restrictions on sharing of data and/or materials, please state these. Please note that we cannot proceed with consideration of your article until this information has been declared. 

Please include your updated Competing Interests statement in your cover letter; we will change the online submission form on your behalf.

3. We note that you have indicated that data from this study are available upon request. PLOS only allows data to be available upon request if there are legal or ethical restrictions on sharing data publicly. For more information on unacceptable data access restrictions, please see http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/data-availability#loc-unacceptable-data-access-restrictions. 

In your revised cover letter, please address the following prompts:

a) If there are ethical or legal restrictions on sharing a de-identified data set, please explain them in detail (e.g., data contain potentially sensitive information, data are owned by a third-party organization, etc.) and who has imposed them (e.g., an ethics committee). Please also provide contact information for a data access committee, ethics committee, or other institutional body to which data requests may be sent.

b) If there are no restrictions, please upload the minimal anonymized data set necessary to replicate your study findings as either Supporting Information files or to a stable, public repository and provide us with the relevant URLs, DOIs, or accession numbers. For a list of acceptable repositories, please see http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/data-availability#loc-recommended-repositories.

We will update your Data Availability statement on your behalf to reflect the information you provide.

4. We note you have included a table to which you do not refer in the text of your manuscript. Please ensure that you refer to Table 6 in your text; if accepted, production will need this reference to link the reader to the Table.

5. Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The authors have explored the impact of the initial dose of enzalutamide on the treatment response and incidence of AEs in patients with CRPC. They report that initial dose modification of enzalutamide did not decrease the incidence of AEs and might impair the efficacy. The topic is clinically significant as the patients are getting older, as written in the manuscript. The manuscript is concise and well-written. Some points to be clarified are as below.

1) In the univariate and multivariate analysis, 'Time to CRPC <12m' is independent risk factor for the prediction of PSA progression-free survival (Table 4). Then, I suppose some patients who had long, durable response with previous ADT (Time to CRPC >12m) might be treated with initial dose reduction. In contrast, some with resistant to ADT might be treated without dose modification. So , Could you check and provide subgroup analysis between these two group according to Time to CRPC?

2) It would be good to provide relative dose intensity if you can calculate from the subjects.

3) In Table 2, the Median time to CRPC (IQR) of the two groups seems different (median time 10.5 vs. 20.5). Although, P-value is not statistically significant. I recommend checking this value and provide other values, such as mean time or distribution if possible.

4) Please add abbreviations to each table.

**********

6. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

PLoS One. 2021 Oct 1;16(10):e0258160. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258160.r002

Author response to Decision Letter 0


6 Sep 2021

Thank you for reviewing our manuscript and offering us the opportunity to submit the revised one. We would also like to thank PLOS ONE Editorial Board that provides an opportunity to improve the manuscript with their helpful comments. We have revised the manuscript according to the reviewers’ suggestions.

Attachment

Submitted filename: Response to Reviewer.doc

Decision Letter 1

Henry Woo

20 Sep 2021

Initial dose reduction of enzalutamide does not decrease the incidence of adverse events in castration-resistant prostate cancer

PONE-D-21-17359R1

Dear Dr. Tsuzuki,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

An invoice for payment will follow shortly after the formal acceptance. To ensure an efficient process, please log into Editorial Manager at http://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/, click the 'Update My Information' link at the top of the page, and double check that your user information is up-to-date. If you have any billing related questions, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Henry Woo

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Acceptance letter

Henry Woo

23 Sep 2021

PONE-D-21-17359R1

Initial dose reduction of enzalutamide does not decrease the incidence of adverse events in castration-resistant prostate cancer

Dear Dr. Tsuzuki:

I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information please contact onepress@plos.org.

If we can help with anything else, please email us at plosone@plos.org.

Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access.

Kind regards,

PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff

on behalf of

Prof. Henry Woo

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Associated Data

    This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

    Supplementary Materials

    S1 File. Anonymized data set.

    (XLSX)

    Attachment

    Submitted filename: Response to Reviewer.doc

    Data Availability Statement

    All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.


    Articles from PLoS ONE are provided here courtesy of PLOS

    RESOURCES