NCCN ORP awarded grant to study effectiveness of enzalutamide in solid tumors

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) Oncology Research Program (ORP) has been awarded a $2.2-million grant from Astellas Pharma, Inc. and Medivation, Inc. to develop a program to scientifically evaluate and define the clinical effectiveness of enzalutamide in solid tumors, including bladder, breast, endometrial, hepatocellular, ovarian, and prostate cancers.

"This grant from Astellas and Medivation gives investigators at NCCN Member Institutions a remarkable opportunity to study the effectiveness of enzalutamide in six cancer types," said Diane E. Paul, MS, RN, Vice President, NCCN ORP. "NCCN is grateful to collaborate with Astellas and Medivation on this research initiative that has the potential to positively affect the treatment of people with cancer."

The first phase of the program will involve the establishment of an NCCN Enzalutamide Request for Proposals Development Team to evaluate existing data and to discuss and define the data and type of studies necessary to further characterize the clinical effectiveness of enzalutamide in bladder, breast, endometrial, hepatocellular, ovarian, and prostate cancers.

Enzalutamide is an androgen receptor inhibitor that acts on different steps in the androgen receptor signaling pathway. Enzalutamide has been shown to competitively inhibit androgen binding to androgen receptors and inhibit androgen receptor nuclear translocation and interaction with deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).

The NCCN ORP draws on the expertise of investigators at NCCN Member Institutions and the NCCN Affiliate Research Consortium (ARC) to facilitate all phases of clinical research. This research is made possible by collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in order to advance therapeutic options for patients with cancer. The NCCN ORP will utilize the grant from Astellas Pharma, Inc. and Medivation, Inc. to support investigator-initiated clinical and correlative studies at NCCN Member Institutions and their affiliate community hospitals for enzalutamide. To date, this successful research model has received more than $44 million in research grants and supported 116 studies that have produced a number of publications in peer-reviewed journals.