• The SPERA trial is designed to provide satraplatin to physicians with patients who have hormone refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) which has progressed following unlimited prior cytotoxic chemotherapy regimens for metastatic disease. [ Time Frame: Patient evaluation by MD at baseline to determine eligibility. ]
  
• To evaluate the safety of Satraplatin in these patients. [ Time Frame: Weekly blood tests and evaluation by MD prior to each cycle and for thirty days following discontinuation of the therapy. ]
  

Drug: Oral Satraplatin
The SPERA protocol states that satraplatin may be continued until evidence of disease progression (at the discretion of the investigator), intolerable toxicity, withdrawal of informed consent, or non compliance. The treatment consists of satraplatin 80 mg/m2 administered by mouth once daily for five consecutive days (days 1-5) plus prednison 5 mg po twice daily. The treatment cycle is repeated every 35 days.

*****UPDATE***** On October 30th, 2007 GPC Biotech announced topline overall survival results for the Phase III trial in hormone refractory prostate cancer-Satraplatin and Prednisone Against Refractory Cancer (SPARC) trial.

The trial evaluated satraplatin plus prednisone versus placebo plus prednisone as a second-line treatment in 950 patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC). The companies reported that the trial did not achieve the endpoint of overall survival (p=0.80, stratified log rank analysis). The median was 61.3 weeks for the satraplatin arm compared to 61.4 weeks for the control group and the hazard ratio was 0.97 (95% CI: 0.83, 1.13). The companies are currently conducting pre-specified subset analyses.

Satraplatin is a member of the platinum-based class of chemotherapy drugs. Platinum-based drugs have been clinically proven to be one of the most effective classes of anticancer therapies. Unlike the currently marketed platinum-based drugs, satraplatin can be given orally.