This biomarker test is defining shared decision-making in celebration of Prostate Cancer Awareness Month

While androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is effective at slowing the progression of prostate cancer by suppressing androgen production, it is often associated with side effects such as fatigue, hot flashes, and erectile dysfunction, as well as the risk for more serious side effects such as bone density loss, dementia and adverse cardiovascular events. For this reason, it is critical to select candidates for ADT with prudence to ensure the benefits outweigh the risks.

Prolaris®, a biomarker test that combines clinical variables with an independent molecular score to deliver personalized prognostic information for each patient, is now the only test to also quantify personalized benefits of adding ADT to radiation therapy.¹

“What the Prolaris report provides is a compilation of their Prolaris molecular score added to those clinical risk features to give us relevant and important statistics,” says Dr. Christopher Lee, radiation oncologist at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center. “So that we can sit down together and make clinical decisions together on how to proceed.”

With the latest update to its report, Prolaris results now provide an individualized estimate of a patient’s 10–year metastasis absolute risk reduction (ARR) when ADT is added to RT. ARR is calculated by subtracting a patient’s 10-year risk of metastasis with RT alone by their 10-year risk of metastasis when combining RT with ADT.

Beyond the benefits of better determining treatment, doctors are finding that this upgrade to the report is also helping the patient consults run more smoothly. This fosters a stronger, shared decision-making process while also expediting those sometimes lengthy conversations.

“Absolute Risk Reduction is a patient-centric endpoint… Everyone has a different number. The Prolaris Report is able to give you that number so you can have that discussion,” said Dr. Jason Hafron, Chief Medical Officer and Director of Clinical Research at the Michigan Institute of Urology.

The bottom line is each patient’s prostate cancer behaves differently, and their expectations of treatment vary even more. For this reason, accessing the most personalized prognostic information is critical to having that discussion with each patient to ensure they are making decisions they are comfortable with against the common side effects of these treatments.

With Prolaris, you can now answer the question in a lot of patients’ minds, “is ADT right for me?”

1. Tward JD, et al. Predicting Absolute Benefit in Risk of Metastasis of Androgen Deprivation Therapy added to Radiation Therapy in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Prostate Cancer. JCO 41, no. 16_suppl (June 01, 2023)503