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2023 John Black Charitable Foundation – PCF Young Investigator Award

Optimal Methods for Identifying and Communicating which Treatments are Best for which People with Metastatic Hormone-Sensitive Prostate Cancer

Peter Godolphin, PhD
University College London

Mentors: Jayne Tierney, Susan Halabi, Noel Clarke

Description:

  • Recently, several new life-prolonging therapies and combinations have become available for patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC). However, which treatment option is best for which patients remains unclear.
  • Peter Godolphin is investigating methods to determine which treatments work best for which people with mHSPC, and ways to communicate information on treatment selections in practice.
  • In this project, Dr. Godolphin and team will analyze mHSPC clinical trial data and perform simulations to identify optimal patient-level, clinical, imaging, and/or molecular biomarkers that can identify which treatments work best for which patients. This will be used to develop a framework of recommendations on which methods to use in practice, and in trials and meta-analyses in mHSPC.
  • Workshops will be held with patients, clinicians, statisticians and trialists to understand communication challenges. Tools for improving communication of interaction results will be developed and tested for effectiveness.
  • If successful, this project will produce a framework of recommendations on optimal methods for selecting treatments for patients with mHSPC and for use in clinical trials and meta-analyses in mHSPC, as well as provide tools to communicate results from such methods.

What this means to patients: Multiple treatment options are now available for patients with mHSPC, such as docetaxel, abiraterone, enzalutamide, apalutamide and darolutamide, but uncertainty remains about precisely which people benefit, which is critical to determining how therapies should be used in practice, whether ongoing trials need to adapt, and how future trials should be designed and analyzed. Dr Godolphin will identify optimal clinical biomarkers for matching patients with mHSPC to treatments, and develop tools for communicating these methods and their results clearly to stakeholders, including patients with mHSPC, clinicians, trialists, and statisticians. This will help to ensure that treatments are targeted appropriately and de-escalated when they are not required, ultimately improving outcomes for people with prostate cancer.