DEGARELIX

Description

Digaric, a gonadotropin hormone-releasing hormone receptor blocker, has been approved in the United States and Europe for advanced (hormone-dependent) prostate cancer treatment, and in Japan for prostate cancer treatment.

A New Zealand study found that digaricol was no less effective in suppressing testosterone at a castration level (i.e., less than 0.5 ng/mL) than liangpraline (7.5mg per month intramuscular injection) in prostate cancer patients who had been treated with endocrine therapy (excluding hormone neoadjuvant therapy). The paper was published online in the journal Drugs in April 2014.

In this study, compared with liangpraline, digaricol had a rapid inhibition of testosterone and a rapid increase of various prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. Also, no testosterone surge or slight increase occurred in patients treated with digaric.

Testosterone inhibition and PSA levels were maintained during the 12-month study period and could last for up to five years (extended study duration of the main trial) (this extended study included patients who had switched from leprodrine to digaricol).

In general, digaric is well tolerated and most adverse events are mild to moderate. The most common adverse events are injection site reactions and some events that reflect the expected effect of testosterone inhibition (e.g., hot flashes and weight gain).

Therefore, digaric is an effective choice for the treatment of prostate cancer patients with endocrine therapy.