New treatment developments applied to elderly patients with advanced prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is a common disease amongst elderly men. Compared with younger patients, men over the age of 75 are more likely to present with advanced disease and have a greater risk of death from prostate cancer despite higher death rates from competing causes. Treatment options for advanced prostate cancer have improved considerably in the last two years. The immunotherapy sipuleucel-T, the cytotoxic cabazitaxel, the androgen biosynthesis inhibitor abiraterone acetate, the radioisotope radium-223 and the antiandrogen enzalutamide have all been shown to improve survival in randomized phase III studies for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. This review will focus on the clinical data regarding new treatment developments specifically applied to elderly patients with advanced prostate cancer.