Treatment-Emergent Co-Morbidities and Survival in Patients With Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer Receiving Abiraterone or Enzalutamide

Secondary hormone therapy, abiraterone and enzalutamide, has improved outcomes for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) and prolonged patients' lives significantly. Various studies have compared the cancer-related outcomes, adverse effects, and drug-induced comorbidities in patients with mCRPC who are treated with abiraterone or enzalutamide. However, few studies have explored associations between survival and comorbidities or comprehensive analyzed newly developed comorbidities during and after secondary hormone therapy. We attempted to clarify whether the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) overall or itemized is predictive for overall survival, and we compared newly developed comorbidities between abiraterone and enzalutamide groups. We extracted data about expenses and comorbidities for patients who have mCRPC, received abiraterone and enzalutamide and met pre-examination operation criteria between September 2016 and December 2017 from the Taiwan National Health Insurance database. A total of 1153 patients with mCRPC who received abiraterone (n = 782) or enzalutamide (n = 371) with or without previous chemotherapy were included. We used the propensity score to match confounding factors, including age, pre-existing comorbidities, and precipitating factors for comorbidity (e.g., hypertension, hyperlipidemia), to eliminate selection bias in the comparison of newly developed comorbidities. Cox regression analysis was used for overall survival. We found that enzalutamide is superior to abiraterone with regard to overall survival. Our study revealed that there is no statistically significant difference in development of new comorbidities between abiraterone and enzalutamide group. Moreover, the CCI score, rather than any single item of the CCI, was a statistically significant predictor for overall survival.