Most cancer patients have a ‘depressed’ immune system because the disease ‘weakens’ their immune system. To address this problem, scientists have developed immune boosting therapies called cancer immunotherapies. Another name for using the immune system to fight cancer is immuno-oncology (IO). In contrast to other cancer treatments, IO therapies strengthen the patient’s own immune response so it can better detect and aggressively fight cancer cells. In doing so, the patient’s own immune system slows the growth or kills the cancer.

There are a variety of immunotherapies used to treat prostate cancer, examples of which are monoclonal antibodies, adoptive T cell therapies, immune checkpoint inhibitors, vaccines, and non-specific immunotherapies. Many of these immunotherapies are accessible in clinical trials. The goal of these immunotherapies is to educate an individual’s immune system and/or increase the available numbers of immune cells to fight prostate cancer. Many of these therapies can also be used in combination with surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy to enhance their effectiveness. 

Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy and Bi-specific T-cell engager antibodies (BiTEs) are example of new forms of immunotherapies. CAR T-cell therapies involve collecting the patient’s own immune cells, increasing the T cell number in the laboratory, modifying these immune cells so they specifically attack prostate cancer cells, and then returned to the patient. Once back in the patient, these immune cells seek-out and eliminate cancerous cells.

BiTE immunotherapy are targeted antibodies which are designed to bind a protein found on the surface of the T-cell and on the surface of the cancer cell. BiTE immunotherapies concentrates the immune cells on the cancerous tissue, which allows for more efficient slowing or killing of the cancer.

To learn more about clinical trials using these IO therapies for advanced prostate cancer, please review the trials below.

• AMG 340: This clinical trial is for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) who have received two or more other forms of therapy.

• P-PMSA-101: This clinical trial is for patients with mCRPC, which has worsened despite having received hormonal and chemotherapeutic treatments.