ANTI-TUMOUR TREATMENT The role of doxorubicin and epirubicin in the treatment of patients with metastatic hormone- refractory prostate cancer Roberto Petrioli a , Anna Ida Fiaschi b , Edoardo Francini a , Alessandra Pascucci a , Guido Francini a, * a Medical Oncology Section, Department of Pharmacology ‘‘G: Segre’’, University of Siena, Policlinico Le Scotte, Viale Bracci 11, 53100 Siena, Italy b Centre of Pharmacovigilance, Department of Pharmacology ‘‘G: Segre’’, University of Siena, Policlinico Le Scotte, Viale Bracci 11, 53100 Siena, Italy Received 17 December 2007; received in revised form 5 March 2008; accepted 11 May 2008 KEYWORDS Anthracyclines; Bone metastases; Doxorubicin; Epirubicin; Hormone-refractory; Prostate cancer Summary Advanced hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) is characterized by preva- lently osteoblastic bone metastases which are what mostly affect these patients’ quality of life and make the assessment of response to treatment particularly difficult by commonly used cri- teria. HRPC cannot be cured by any available therapeutic option, and chemotherapy has to be still considered as a palliative treatment. The anthracyclines doxorubicin (Dox) and epirubicin (Epi), alone or in combination with other agents, have been extensively used in the treatment of HRPC, but controversial results have been reported. The majority of reviewed studies reported a pain reduction in >50% of patients receiving Dox or Epi, suggesting a substantial pal- liative effect by their use in metastatic HRPC. The weekly schedule of anthracyclines seemed to achieve similar results to the 3-weekly schedule but with a better toxicity profile. Although the toxic adverse effects were usually manageable when anthracyclines were combined with other agents, toxicity was severe by a number of aggressive regimens. Docetaxel is today approved for the treatment of HRPC, and must be considered the standard platform on which new agents may be combined. Given that HRPC includes a heterogeneous group of patients with variable rates of tumour growth, the combination of docetaxel with active agents such as anthracyclines may deserve further clinical investigation.  c 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 0305-7372/$ - see front matter  c 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ctrv.2008.05.004 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0577 586429; fax: +39 0577 586133. E-mail addresses: r.petrioli@ao-siena.toscana.it (R. Petrioli), fiaschi@unisi.it (A.I. Fiaschi), francini@unisi.it (G. Francini). Cancer Treatment Reviews (2008) 34, 710– 718 available at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevierhealth.com/journals/ctrv