In recent years, in castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), several new drugs have been approved that prolong overall survival, including enzalutamide and abiraterone, two new-generation hormonal therapies. Despite the demonstrated benefit of these agents, not all patients with CRPC are responsive to treatment, the gain in median progression-free survival with these therapies compared to standard of care is, rather disappointingly, still less than six months and the appearance of acquired resistance is almost universal. Approximately one third of patients treated with abiraterone and 25% of those treated with enzalutamide show primary resistance to these agents. Even if the mechanisms of resistance to these agents are not fully defined, many hypotheses are emerging, including systemic and intratumoral androgen biosynthesis up-regulation, androgen receptor (AR) gene mutations and amplifications, alteration of pathways involved in cross-talk with AR signaling, glucocorticoid receptor overexpression, neuroendocrine differentiation, immune system deregulation and others. The aim of this paper is to review currently available data about mechanisms of resistance to abiraterone and enzalutamide, and to discuss how these mechanisms could be potentially overcome through novel therapeutic agents.

Background Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors have antitumour activity against metastatic castrationresistant prostate cancers with DNA damage response (DDR) alterations in genes involved directly or indirectly in homologous recombination repair (HRR). In this study, we assessed the PARP inhibitor talazoparib in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancers with DDR-HRR alterations.Methods In this open-label, phase 2 trial (TALAPRO-1), participants were recruited from 43 hospitals, cancer centres, and medical centres in Australia,

Results. Twenty-five studies were included. A negative prognostic role for low serum vitD level was observed in five cohort studies including patients with breast cancer (one study), colon cancer (two studies), prostate cancer (one study), and melanoma (one study), but not in two studies on non-small cell lung cancer and one study on breast cancer. Three of four studies showed that VDR ؉ tu-

We synthesized the evidence available about the early administration of docetaxel in patients starting hormonal treatment for metastatic prostate cancer. Based on the results of this meta-analysis, we believe the combination of chemotherapy and hormonal treatment should be considered in fit patients.

The new-generation hormonal agent enzalutamide has been approved for the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), in both post- and predocetaxel setting, due to the significant improvement in overall survival. More recently, enzalutamide also showed impressive results in the treatment of men with nonmetastatic CRPC. Unfortunately, not all patients with CRPC are responsive to enzalutamide, and even in responders, benefits are limited by the development of drug resistance. Adaptive resistance of metastatic prostate cancer to enzalutamide treatment can be due to the activation of both androgen receptor (AR)-dependent pathways (expression of constitutively active AR splice variants, AR point mutations, gene amplification and overexpression) and mechanisms independent of AR signaling pathway (altered steroidogenesis, upregulation of the glucocorticoid receptor, epithelial–mesenchymal transition, neuroendocrine transformation, autophagy and activation of the immune system). In this review, we focus on resistance mechanisms to enzalutamide, exploring how we could overcome them through novel therapeutic options.

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These data suggest that 60% of patients with MPM characterized by either PD-L1 expression or an inflamed status are attractive candidates for cancer immunotherapeutic options.

Incidence of bone metastases is very high in advanced prostate cancer patients. Bone metastases likely have a significant impact on functional status and quality of life, not only related to pain, but also to the relevant risk of skeletal-related events. A better understanding of mechanisms associated with bone metastatic disease secondary to prostate cancer and more specifically to the cross-talk between tumor cells and bone microenvironment in metastatic progression represented the background for the development of new effective bone-targeted therapies. Furthermore, a better knowledge of biological mechanisms driving disease progression led to significant advances in the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer, with the development and approval of new effective drugs. Aim of this review is to outline the physiopathology of bone metastases in prostate cancer and summarize the main results of clinical trials conducted with different drugs to control morbidity induced by skeletal metastases and bone disease progression. For each agent, therapeutic effect on bone metastases has been measured in terms of pain control and/or incidence of skeletal-related events, usually defined as a composite endpoint, including the need for local treatment (radiation therapy or surgery), spinal cord compression, pathological bone fractures. In details, data obtained with chemotherapy (mitoxantrone, docetaxel, cabazitaxel), new generation hormonal agents (abiraterone, enzalutamide), radium-223, bone-targeted agents (zoledronic acid, denosumab) and with several experimental agents (cabozantinib, dasatinib, anti-endothelin and other agents) in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer are reviewed.