Imagine taking a medicine that works but makes you feel sick all the time. Instead of taking it non-stop, this study tests if taking breaks from the treatment works just as well. The goal is to keep the cancer under control while giving patients more healthy days and saving the hospital money.
Continuous androgen therapy for prostate cancer causes significant side effects and consumes heavy healthcare resources, reducing patient quality of life and straining health budgets.
A Phase 3 pragmatic randomised trial protocol and clinical infrastructure to validate intermittent androgen deprivation therapy (iADT).
If you are a drug developer dealing with high patient dropout rates due to side effects — this project developed a new dosing schedule that minimizes side effects. This could increase the long-term adherence to your therapies.
If you are a clinic owner dealing with high resource utilization for continuous therapy — this project developed an intermittent treatment standard that reduces resource use. This allows for more efficient patient throughput and lower operational costs.
If you are an insurer dealing with the high cost of lifelong continuous cancer treatment — this project developed an evidence-based standard of care that improves health system sustainability. This could lead to lower long-term reimbursement costs per patient.
Based on available project data, specific pricing is not provided, but the project aims to minimize resource utilization and improve health system sustainability.
The project is currently in a Phase 3 pragmatic randomised trial with 27 clinical sites authorized as of January 2026, indicating it is moving toward large-scale clinical validation.
Based on available project data, no specific patents are mentioned; however, the outcome will define a new evidence-based standard of care for metastatic hormone sensitive prostate cancer.
The project period runs from 2023-06-01 to 2028-05-31, with patient recruitment expected to be completed by June.
It proposes a shift from continuous androgen deprivation therapy to an intermittent schedule (iADT) to reduce side effects and resource use.
The consortium is research-heavy, consisting of 6 partners across 5 countries. While 83% of the partners are non-industrial (research and other), there is a 17% industry presence including one SME, ensuring that the clinical findings are balanced with some commercial perspective.
Contact the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) in Belgium.
Contact us to track the Phase 3 results of DE-ESCALATE for your oncology portfolio.
