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Introduction: Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) is a heterogeneous disease with prognoses varying from months to years at time of castration-resistant diagnosis. Optimal first-line therapy for those with different prognoses is unknown., Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of men in a national healthcare delivery system receiving first-line therapy for mCRPC (abiraterone, enzalutamide, docetaxel, or ketoconazole) from 2010 to 2017, with follow-up through 2019. Using commonly drawn prognostic labs at start of mCRPC therapy (hemoglobin, albumin, and alkaline phosphatase), we categorized men into favorable, intermediate, or poor prognostic groups depending on whether they had none, one to two, or all three laboratory values worse than designated laboratory cutoffs. We used Kaplan-Meier methods to examine prostate specific antigen (PSA) progression-free and overall survival (OS) according to prognostic group and first-line therapy, and multivariable cox regression to determine variables associated with survival outcomes., Results: Among 4135 patients, median PSA progression-free survival (PFS) was 6.9 months (95% confidence interval [CI] 6.6-7.3), and median OS 18.8 months (95% CI 18.0-19.6), ranging from 5.7 months (95% CI 4.8-7.0) in the poor prognosis group to 31.3 months (95% CI 29.7-32.9) in the favorable group. OS was similar regardless of initial treatment received for favorable and intermediate groups, but worse for those in the poor prognostic group who received ketoconazole (adjusted hazard ratio 2.07, 95% CI 1.2-3.6). PSA PFS was worse for those who received ketoconazole compared to abiraterone across all prognostic groups (favorable HR 1.76, 95% CI 1.34-2.31; intermediate HR 1.78, 95% CI 1.41-2.25; poor HR 8.01, 95% CI 2.93-21.9)., Conclusion: Commonly drawn labs at mCRPC treatment start may aid in predicting survival and response to therapies, potentially informing discussions with care teams. First-line treatment selection impacts disease progression for all men with mCRPC regardless of prognostic group, but impacted OS only for men with poor prognosis at treatment start., (© 2024 The Author(s). Cancer Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Purpose: Despite guidelines recommending bone-modifying agents (BMAs) to decrease skeletal-related events (SREs) in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), BMAs are underutilized. In this retrospective cohort study, we report the factors associated with BMA use in a national health care delivery system., Methods: We used the Veterans Affairs Corporate Data Warehouse to identify men with mCRPC between 2010 and 2017. BMA prescribing frequency was evaluated, and the association between patient- and disease-specific factors with BMA use was assessed using multivariable logistic regression., Results: Among 3,980 men identified with mCRPC (mean age 73.5 years, 29% Black), 47% received a BMA; median time to BMA from start of mCRPC treatment was 102 days. Factors associated with BMA use included previous BMA use (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 7.81 [95% CI, 6.48 to 9.47]), diagnosis code for bone metastases (aOR, 1.26 [95% CI, 1.08 to 1.46]), and concomitant corticosteroid use (aOR, 1.53 [95% CI, 1.29 to 1.82]). Decreased BMA use was associated with advancing age (aOR, 0.85 per 10 years [95% CI, 0.78 to 0.92]), Charlson comorbidity index ≥2 (aOR, 0.76 [95% CI, 0.63 to 0.93]), Black race (aOR, 0.83 [95% CI, 0.70 to 0.98]), and decreased estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR; aOR, 0.19 [95% CI, 0.11 to 0.32] for eGFR 0-29 mL/minutes; aOR, 0.76 [95% CI, 0.64 to 0.91] for 30-59 mL/minutes)., Conclusion: Patients who are older, Black, or have more comorbidities are less likely to receive guideline concordant care to prevent SREs. These observations highlight the unique challenges of caring for patients with mCRPC and the need for future studies to increase BMA use in these populations.

Background: Abiraterone and enzalutamide are castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) therapies with potentially distinct associations with mental health symptoms given their differing antiandrogen targets., Methods: We used national Veterans Health Administration data to identify patients with CRPC who received first-line abiraterone or enzalutamide from 2010 to 2017. Using Poisson regression, we compared outpatient mental health encounters per 100 patient-months on drug between the abiraterone and enzalutamide cohorts adjusting for patient factors (e.g., age). We compared mental health encounters in the year before versus after starting therapy using the McNemar test., Results: We identified 2902 CRPC patients who received abiraterone (n = 1992) or enzalutamide (n = 910). We found no difference in outpatient mental health encounters between the two groups (adjusted incident rate ratio [aIRR] 1.04, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.95-1.15). However, men with preexisting mental health diagnoses received 81.3% of the outpatient mental health encounters and had higher rates of these encounters with enzalutamide (aIRR 1.21, 95% CI 1.09-1.34). Among patients with ≥1 year of enrollment before and after starting abiraterone (n = 1139) or enzalutamide (n = 446), there was no difference in mental health care utilization before versus after starting treatment (17.0% of patients vs. 17.6%, p = 0.60, abiraterone; 16.4% vs. 18.4%, p = 0.26, enzalutamide)., Conclusion: We found no overall differences in mental health care utilization between CRPC patients who received first-line abiraterone versus enzalutamide. However, men with preexisting mental health diagnoses received the majority of mental health care and had more mental health visits with enzalutamide., (© 2023 The Authors. Cancer Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Over the past decade, abiraterone and enzalutamide have largely replaced ketoconazole as oral treatments for castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). We investigated the differential adoption of abiraterone and enzalutamide across facilities in a national healthcare system to understand the impact a facility has on the receipt of these novel therapies., Methods: Using data from the VA Corporate Data Warehouse, we identified a cohort of men with CRPC who received the most common first-line therapies: abiraterone, enzalutamide, docetaxel, or ketoconazole between 2010 and 2017. We described variability in the adoption of abiraterone and enzalutamide across facilities by time period (2010-2013 or 2014-2017). We categorized facilities depending on the timing of adoption of abiraterone and enzalutamide relative to other facilities and described facility characteristics associated with early and late adoption., Results: We identified 4998 men treated with ketoconazole, docetaxel, abiraterone, or enzalutamide as first-line CRPC therapy between 2010 and 2017 at 125 national facilities. When limiting the cohort to oral therapies, most patients treated earlier in the study period (2010-2013) received ketoconazole. A dramatic shift was seen by the second half of the study period (2014-2017) with most men treated with first-line abiraterone (61%). Despite this shift and a new standard of care, some facilities persisted in the widespread use of ketoconazole in the later period, so-called late adopting facilities. After multivariable adjustment, patients who received treatment at a late adopting facility were more likely receiving care at a lower complexity, rural facility, with less urology and hematology/oncology workforce (all p < 0.01)., Conclusion: Many facilities persisted in their use of ketoconazole as first-line CRPC therapy, even when other facilities had adopted the new standard of care abiraterone and enzalutamide. Further work is needed to identify the effect of this late adoption on outcomes important to patients., (© 2022 The Authors. Cancer Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Abiraterone and enzalutamide are the most common oral agents for the treatment of men with advanced prostate cancer. To understand their safety profiles in real-world settings, we examined the association between the use of abiraterone or enzalutamide and the risk of metabolic or cardiovascular adverse events while on treatment., Methods: Men with advanced prostate cancer and their use of abiraterone or enzalutamide were identified in a 20% sample of the 2010-2017 national Medicare claims. The primary composite outcome was the occurrence of a major metabolic or cardiovascular adverse event, defined as an emergency room visit or hospitalization associated with a primary diagnosis of diabetes, hypertension, or cardiovascular disease. The secondary composite outcome was the occurrence of a minor metabolic or cardiovascular adverse event, defined as an outpatient visit associated with a primary diagnosis of the aforementioned conditions. Risks were assessed separately for abiraterone and enzalutamide using Cox regression. All statistical tests were 2-sided., Results: Compared with men not receiving abiraterone, men receiving abiraterone were at increased risk of both a major composite adverse event (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.77, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.53 to 2.05; P < .001) and a minor composite adverse event (HR = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.05 to 1.47; P = .01). Compared with men not receiving enzalutamide, men receiving enzalutamide were at an increased risk of a major composite adverse event (HR = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.01 to 1.48; P = .04) but not a minor composite adverse event (HR = 1.04, 95% CI = 0.83 to 1.30; P = .75)., Conclusion: Careful monitoring and management of men on abiraterone or enzalutamide through team-based approaches are critical., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Background: Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) use is associated with an increased risk of developing depression and anxiety. Little is known about how the mental health of these men is treated., Materials and Methods: We identified men with prostate cancer who received ADT between 2001 and 2015 using Optum's de-identified Clinformatics Data Mart Database. We determined the incidence of depression or anxiety diagnoses, mental health treatments, and the specialty of providers initiating psychotropic medications, after the start of ADT. Outcomes were compared with those of men with prostate cancer not receiving ADT and men without prostate cancer., Results: Of 37 388 men with prostate cancer treated with ADT, 3964 (10.6%) received a new diagnosis of depression or anxiety. Of those 3964 men, 1892 (47.7%) did not receive a documented treatment, 10 (0.3%) received psychotherapy, 1321 (33.3%) a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, and 744 (18.8%) a benzodiazepine. The median time from initiation of ADT to a depression or anxiety diagnosis was 9.3 months. Primary care physicians were the most common prescribers of psychotropic medications (72.2%). The proportion of men not receiving mental health treatments of interest (47.7%) was similar compared to men without prostate cancer (49.1%), but statistically significantly lower compared to men with prostate cancer not receiving ADT (52.7%)., Conclusions: In men with prostate cancer receiving ADT with a new diagnosis of depression or anxiety, nearly half are not receiving mental health care while one in five is introduced to a benzodiazepine. Further investigation toward improving the mental health care for men on ADT is needed., (Published by Oxford University Press 2022.)

Background: Treatments for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) differ in toxicity, administration, and evidence. In this study, clinical and nonclinical factors associated with the first-line treatment for CRPC in a national delivery system were evaluated., Methods: National electronic laboratory and clinical data from the Veterans Health Administration were used to identify patients with CRPC (ie, rising prostate-specific antigen [PSA] on androgen deprivation) who received abiraterone, enzalutamide, docetaxel, or ketoconazole from 2010 through 2017. It was determined whether clinical (eg, PSA) and nonclinical factors (eg, race, facility) were associated with the first-line treatment selection using multilevel, multinomial logistic regression. The average marginal effects (AMEs) were calculated of patient, disease, and facility characteristics on ketoconazole versus more appropriate CRPC therapy., Results: There were 4998 patients identified with CRPC who received first-line ketoconazole, docetaxel, abiraterone, or enzalutamide. After adjustment, increasing age was associated with receipt of abiraterone (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.07; 95% credible interval [CrI], 1.06-1.09) or enzalutamide (aOR, 1.10; 95% CrI, 1.08-1.11) versus docetaxel. Greater preexisting comorbidity was associated with enzalutamide versus abiraterone (aOR, 1.53; 95% CrI, 1.23-1.91). Patients with higher PSA values at the start of treatment were more likely to receive docetaxel than oral agents and less likely to receive ketoconazole than other oral agents. African American men were more likely to receive ketoconazole than abiraterone, enzalutamide, or docetaxel (AME, 2.8%; 95% CI, 0.7%-4.9%). This effect was attenuated when adjusting for facility characteristics (AME, 1.9%; 95% CI, -0.4% to 4.1%)., Conclusions: Clinical factors had an expected effect on the first-line treatment selection. Race may be associated with the receipt of a guideline-discordant first-line treatment., (© 2021 American Cancer Society.)

Medical insurance claims are becoming increasingly common data sources to answer a variety of questions in biomedical research. Although comprehensive in terms of longitudinal characterization of disease development and progression for a potentially large number of patients, population-based inference using these datasets require thoughtful modifications to sample selection and analytic strategies relative to other types of studies. Along with complex selection bias and missing data issues, claims-based studies are purely observational, which limits effective understanding and characterization of the treatment differences between groups being compared. All these issues contribute to a crisis in reproducibility and replication of comparative findings using medical claims. This paper offers practical guidance to the analytical process, demonstrates methods for estimating causal treatment effects with propensity score methods for several types of outcomes common to such studies, such as binary, count, time to event and longitudinally-varying measures, and also aims to increase transparency and reproducibility of reporting of results from these investigations. We provide an online version of the paper with readily implementable code for the entire analysis pipeline to serve as a guided tutorial for practitioners. The online version can be accessed at https://rydaro.github.io/. The analytic pipeline is illustrated using a sub-cohort of patients with advanced prostate cancer from the large Clinformatics TM Data Mart Database (OptumInsight, Eden Prairie, Minnesota), consisting of 73 million distinct private payer insurees from 2001-2016., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no competing interests and nothing to disclose.

Background : The arrival of new residents brings challenges for residency programs and residents. Many residency programs conduct orientation sessions to help transition rising supervisory residents into their new roles, but no evaluation of their impact on residents' emotional well-being has been performed. Objective : This study assesses the impact of a half-day orientation retreat on rising internal medicine post-graduate year (PGY) 2 residents' emotions toward PGY2 year and their self-confidence in fulfilling the supervisory resident role. Design : A survey was administered to a class of rising supervisory residents immediately before and after an orientation retreat in May 2017. The survey provided participants an open-ended prompt to describe their emotions toward PGY2 year and a 5-point Likert scale to rate their confidence in fulfilling supervisory resident roles. Differences were assessed using McNemar's exact and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, respectively. Results : Forty-four of 50 (88%) eligible participants completed pre- and post-intervention Likert scales and 40 of 50 (80%) eligible participants completed corresponding emotion sections. Pre-intervention the most common emotions were anxiety (n = 33, 82.5%) and excitement (n = 32, 80.0%). Post-intervention, participants' fear was reduced (45.0% vs 12.0%; p < 0.001). Participants reported greater confidence that internship prepared them for PGY2 year and understanding of triaging and admitting principles (agree or strongly agree from 65.9% to 84.0% and from 25.0% to 68.2%, respectively; p < 0.005 for improvement by Wilcoxon signed-rank for both). Conclusions : Orientation retreats may be an effective way to reduce fear and demystify the supervisory resident role.

For decades, the mainstay of treatment for metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer has been androgen deprivation therapy. In recent years, 4 systemic therapies-docetaxel, abiraterone, enzalutamide, and apalutamide-have improved overall survival for men with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer when combined with androgen deprivation therapy, raising the question of which treatment to choose. The role for metastasis-directed therapy with surgery or radiation among these new treatments has also yet to be defined. Thus, several factors have come into play to guide treatment selection, including disease characteristics, age, fitness, and comorbidities of the patient, potential adverse effects of therapies, and health system considerations such as access to care and financial toxicity. Careful and shared decision making between patient and provider is critical. Future directions aimed at refining our treatment selection include researching the role of novel molecular imaging techniques, biomarkers predicting therapy response, sequencing and combining therapies, and understanding the long-term and late effects of these treatments.

Introduction: Abiraterone improves survival in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) but may result in the development or worsening of comorbid conditions. We assessed the course of these conditions in patients receiving abiraterone in clinical practice and compared outcomes with those in clinical trials., Materials and Methods: Medical records of patients with mCRPC who started abiraterone at an academic institution between 2012 and 2015 were reviewed for emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalizations, and the development and/or worsening of key comorbid conditions while on abiraterone. Patient characteristics and adverse events were compared with those from clinical trials., Results: In a cohort of 174 patients, 28% experienced either the development or worsening of a comorbid disease; 8% required an ED visit or hospitalization owing to known adverse effects of abiraterone. Increasing age (odds ratio [OR], 1.08; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01-1.17), higher prostate-specific antigen at initiation of treatment (OR, 1.68; 95% CI, 1.18-2.47), preexisting uncontrolled hypertension (OR, 7.61; 95% CI, 1.22-38.70), congestive heart failure (OR, 7.61; 95% CI, 1.22-38.70), and cardiac arrhythmias (OR, 4.73; 95% CI, 1.39-15.12) were associated with increased odds of an ED visit or hospitalization owing to known adverse effects of abiraterone. The rate of discontinuation (6%) was similar to 1 phase III trial that demonstrated the drug's efficacy in chemotherapy-naive patients., Conclusion: Few patients discontinued abiraterone owing to toxicity; however, the fact that over one-quarter of patients experienced the development or worsening of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases warrants development of team-based approaches to the management of these comorbid conditions., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)