Pain and Its Association with Survival for Black and White Individuals with Advanced Prostate Cancer in the United States.

Bone pain is a well-known quality-of-life detriment for individuals with prostate cancer and is associated with survival. This study expands previous work into racial differences in multiple patient-reported dimensions of pain and the association between baseline and longitudinal pain and mortality. This is a prospective cohort study of individuals with newly diagnosed advanced prostate cancer enrolled in the International Registry for Men with Advanced Prostate Cancer (IRONMAN) from 2017 to 2023 at U.S. sites. Differences in four pain scores at study enrollment by race were investigated. Cox proportional hazards models and joint longitudinal survival models were fit for each of the scale scores to estimate HRs and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association with all-cause mortality. The cohort included 879 individuals (20% self-identifying as Black) enrolled at 38 U.S. sites. Black participants had worse pain at baseline compared with White participants, most notably a higher average pain rating (mean 3.1 vs. 2.2 on a 10-point scale). For each pain scale, higher pain was associated with higher mortality after adjusting for measures of disease burden, particularly for severe bone pain compared with no pain (HR, 2.47; 95% CI: 1.44-4.22). The association between pain and all-cause mortality was stronger for participants with castration-resistant prostate cancer compared with those with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer and was similar among Black and White participants. Overall, Black participants reported worse pain than White participants, and more severe pain was associated with higher mortality independent of clinical covariates for all pain scales. SIGNIFICANCE: Black participants with advanced prostate cancer reported worse pain than White participants, and more pain was associated with worse survival. More holistic clinical assessments of pain in this population are needed to determine the factors upon which to intervene to improve quality of life and survivorship, particularly for Black individuals.

A phase I trial of sorafenib plus gemcitabine and capecitabine for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma: New York Cancer Consortium Trial NCI 6981.

OBJECTIVE: To define the safety [dose limiting toxicity (DLT)] and recommended phase II dose of the combination of sorafenib plus gemcitabine and capecitabine for advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). METHODS: In this phase I dose-escalation study, cohorts of 3 to 6 patients with metastatic RCC received sorafenib (200 or 400 mg po BID), gemcitabine (750 or 1000 mg/m(2) intravenous on days 1 and 8), and capecitabine (415 or 622 mg/m(2) po BID days 1-14) every 21 days using a standard 3+3 design. RESULTS: Fifteen patients with advanced RCC (93% with clear cell histology and 87% treatment naive) received treatment. The recommended phase II doses for the combination were sorafenib 200 mg/m(2) BID continuously plus gemcitabine 750 mg/m(2) intravenous days 1 and 8 and capecitabine 415 mg/m(2) BID days 1 to 14, every 21 days. Of the 15 patients, 3 developed dose-limiting hand-foot syndrome during the first 2 cycles; 2 additional DLT's were grade 3 mucositis and transaminase elevation. Four of 14 evaluable patients had a partial response by response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (29%; 95% confidence interval (CI): 8, 58%). Median progression-free survival was 7.5 months (95% CI-0, 18.7), and median overall survival has not been reached at a median follow-up of 28.8 months. The median number of treatment cycles given was 7 (range, 2-38+). CONCLUSIONS: The combination of sorafenib plus gemcitabine and capecitabine is tolerable, but requires attenuation of sorafenib and capecitabine dosing because of the overlapping toxicity of hand-foot syndrome. Antitumor activity was observed leading to an ongoing phase II trial.