In a single institution study at the University of Florida, Gainesville, investigators found that in mCRPC patients, all of whom were pretreated with chemotherapy, there was a 45% rate of pancytopenia which is a clinically significant reduction in the number of white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets. In the clinical trial that led to the approval of Xofigo, the pancytopenia rate was reported as only 2%. Why is this important? Because pancytopenia can disqualify patients from other survival-prolonging therapies they may need after Xofigo. Older age (74 vs 68) and higher ECOG score (1.6 vs 1.2) correlated with increased risk of pancytopenia.
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