Effectiveness of abiraterone acetate plus prednisone in chemotherapy-naïve patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer in a large prospective real-world cohort: the ABItude study

Background: Real-world data on chemotherapy-naïve patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) treated with abiraterone plus prednisone are limited, largely deriving from small retrospective studies. Methods: ABitude is an Italian, observational, prospective, multicenter study of mCRPC patients receiving abiraterone plus prednisone in clinical practice. Chemotherapy-naïve mCRPC patients were consecutively enrolled at abiraterone start (February 2016 to June 2017) and are being followed for 3 years, with evaluation approximately every 6 months. Several clinical and patients reported outcomes were examined. Results: In this second interim analysis, among 481 enrolled patients, 453 were evaluable for analyses. At baseline, the median age was 77 years and ~69% of patients had comorbidities (mainly cardiovascular diseases). Metastases were located mainly at bones and lymph nodes; 8.4% of patients had visceral metastases. During a median follow-up of 18 months, 1- and 2-year probability of radiographic progression-free survival were 73.9% and 56.2%, respectively; the corresponding rates for overall survival were 87.3% and 70.4%. In multivariable analyses, the number of bone metastases significantly affected radiographic progression-free survival and overall survival. During abiraterone plus prednisone treatment, 65% of patients had a ⩾50% prostate-specific antigen decline, and quality of life remained appreciably high. Among symptomatic patients according to the Brief Pain Inventory) (32%), scores significantly declined after 6 months of treatment. Overall, eight patients (1.7%) had serious adverse reactions to abiraterone. Conclusions: Abiraterone plus prednisone is effective and safe for chemotherapy-naïve mCRPC patients in clinical practice

Tris-lecithin extender supplemented with antioxidant catalase for chilling of canine semen

The aims were to evaluate the suitability of a non-commercial TRIS-lecithin (LC) extender and the effect of different concentrations of catalase (CAT) on motility, capacitation status (Chlortetracycline-assay) and zona pellucida (ZP) binding capacity of canine spermatozoa stored at +5 C for 4 days. The sperm-rich fractions of the ejaculates of four stud dogs were divided into four aliquots. After centrifugation, sperm pellets were diluted (200 \ub7 106 sperm \u2044 ml) in TRIS buffer, citric acid, fructose, antibiotics, supplemented with 20% egg yolk (TRIS-EY) or 0.04% soybean lecithin (TRIS-LC) with CAT (150 or 450 UI \u2044 ml) or without CAT, and then preserved at 5 C for 4 days. The results showed that LC is a valid alternative to EY for chilling canine semen, as similar rates of motility, number of uncapacitated spermatozoa and of spermatozoa binding the oocyte ZP were obtained in semen chilled in TRIS-LC or TRIS-EY. Different concentrations of CAT in a TRIS-LC based extender did not improve the quality of semen after chilling. However, a concentration of 150 UI \u2044 ml CAT resulted in an increased number of spermatozoa bound to the oocyte ZP, after 4 days of chilling when compared to semen chilled with TRIS-EY and TRIS-LC. In conclusion, an animal protein-free extender with soybean LC, as a replacement of EY, is suitable for 4 days chilling of canine spermatozoa, but the addition of CAT does not improve general semen quality except for a slight effect on sperm-ZP binding