Casodex Tolerability Advantage Over Eulexin?

Zeneca Pharmaceuticals' Casodex (bicalutamide) causes less diarrhea than Schering-Plough's Eulexin (flutamide) when used in the treatment of prostate cancer patients, according to a comparative study presented on May 23 at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Los Angeles.

Nicholas Vogelzang of the University of Chicago, who presented the findings, said that the incidence of diarrhea was 10% in the Casodex group and 24% in the Eulexin group, leading to 43% fewer withdrawals from therapy in patients treated with the Zeneca drug.

The study included a total of 813 patients with previously untreated advanced prostate cancer. The patients received either Casodex (50mg once daily) or Eulexin (250mg three times daily) in combination with luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone therapy (either Zeneca's goserelin acetate or Abbott Laboratories' leuprolide). Of the 404 patients receiving Casodex, 168 (42%) reached a treatment failure endpoint compared to 218 (53%) of the 409 patients treated with Eulexin, a difference which was statistically significant.