In the prostate specific antigen (PSA) era, about 15% to 20% of patients are diagnosed with high-risk localized disease and radical prostatectomy is a standard therapy for this subgroup of patients. However, despite best local therapy, about 30-60% of high-risk patients will eventually develop biochemical relapse and a significant proportion of these patients may progress with metastatic disease and die from prostate cancer. Currently, there is no data supporting the use of neoadjuvant therapy for patients with high-risk disease since studies failed to demonstrate clinically significant benefit with standard androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). Following improved outcomes in other malignancies with the use of neoadjuvant therapy with active drugs in the metastatic setting, there is a growing interest in evaluating new-generation androgen receptor (AR)-targeted therapy in earlier stages of prostate cancer. Therefore, the goal of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant therapy with ADT and abiraterone versus maximal androgen blockade using ADT, abiraterone and apalutamide for patients with high-risk localized prostate cancer.
