GTI-2040, Docetaxel, and Prednisone in Treating Patients With Prostate Cancer

RATIONALE: GTI-2040 may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking the enzymes necessary for their growth. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as docetaxel, work in different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. GTI-2040 may help docetaxel kill more tumor cells by making them more sensitive to the drug. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well giving GTI-2040 together with docetaxel and prednisone works in treating patients with prostate cancer that has not responded to hormone therapy.

OBJECTIVES: Primary * Determine the efficacy of GTI-2040, docetaxel, and prednisone, in terms of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response rate, in patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Secondary * Determine objective tumor response in patients treated with this regimen. * Determine the median time to progression in patients treated with this regimen. * Determine the safety and tolerability of this regimen in these patients. * Determine the median duration of PSA response in patients treated with this regimen. * Correlate baseline and post-treatment levels of ribonucleotide reductase activity in tumor biopsies and peripheral blood mononuclear cells and tumoral expression of c-myc, R2 subunit protein, and markers of cellular proliferation and apoptosis with clinical outcomes in patients treated with this regimen. OUTLINE: This is an open-label, multicenter study. Patients receive GTI-2040 IV continuously on days 1-14, docetaxel IV on day 3 of course 1 and on day 1 of subsequent courses, and oral prednisone twice daily on days 1-21. Treatment repeats every 21 days for up to 10 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients are followed for survival. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 18-46 patients will be accrued for this study within 3.6-9.5 months.