Unmet Need
Prostate cancer (PC) is the most common non-cutaneous malignancy in men with over 1.4 million new cases diagnosed globally in 2020 (see Wang 2022). Although disease confined to the prostate is highly curable, many men will be diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer which is not curable but is treatable. The gold standard of care is androgen deprivation treatment (ADT), which reduces the circulating levels of testosterone via surgery or lifelong medication to treat metastatic PC. Androgen deprivation, while an effective treatment, dramatically reduces the patient’s quality of life with side effects such as bone fractures, cardiovascular events, cognitive deficits, sexual dysfunction, and severe fatigue. Management of side effects would make ADT a practical lifelong treatment option. Many of the side effects are a result of lack of testosterone in the central nervous system. Therefore, there is a strong need for a treatment to be developed to address these side effects without reducing the effectiveness of the treatment.
Technology Overview
Researchers at Hopkins have developed a drug delivery system that allows for the administration of testosterone directly to the central nervous system (CNS) to treat the side effects of ADT. Restoration of modified testosterone specifically in the CNS can attenuate several of the toxicities of ADT while concomitantly maintaining low levels of testosterone in systemic circulation and avoid PC progression. This therapeutic would allow for a better quality of life for patients with metastatic prostate cancer.
Stage of Development
Pre-clinical data is available.
Publication
