A Phase 3 interventional study of Opevesostat and Dexamethasone in Metastatic Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer (mCRPC) and Prostatic Neoplasms, sponsored by Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC. Recruiting at 330 sites in 39 countries. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-10-20.
Sponsored by Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC (part of Merck & Co., Inc) · Phase 3, Interventional, and Treatment
The purpose of this study is to assess the efficacy and safety of opevesostat plus daily corticosteroids compared to alternative abiraterone acetate or enzalutamide in participants with Metastatic Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer (mCRPC) previously treated with one next-generation hormonal agent (NHA). The primary study hypothesis is that opevesostat is superior to alternative abiraterone acetate or enzalutamide with respect to overall survival (OS), in androgen receptor ligand binding domain (AR LBD) mutation positive and negative participants.
Per Protocol Amendment 08, OS was moved to be a secondary outcome measure. Per Protocol Amendment 11, OS was returned to a primary outcome measure.
7,046 studies on the registry are indexed under Prostatic Neoplasms; 1,580 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 1,314 is above the median of 60 across 5,348 interventional studies indexed under Prostatic Neoplasms.
Browse Prostatic Neoplasms studies →Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC is the lead sponsor of 2,166 studies on the registry; 132 are open to participants now.
Of its 501 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 370 (74%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
The main inclusion criteria include but are not limited to the following:
Exclusion Criteria:
The main exclusion criteria include but are not limited to the following:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).
Your pathology report is the document that shows this.
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.
Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.
A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.
Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.
After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.
On an ECG, the QT interval is the time the heart’s lower chambers take to activate electrically and recover in each beat. QTc is that time adjusted for heart rate (QTcF by Fridericia’s formula, QTcB by Bazett’s). Some medicines lengthen it, and a long QTc can raise the risk of a dangerous heart rhythm.
The study may name a correction formula and a limit in milliseconds, often around 450–480.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
CYP3A is a group of enzymes, mainly CYP3A4, in the liver and gut that break down many medicines. Some medicines, supplements and foods (grapefruit, St John’s wort) slow them down or speed them up, which changes how much of a study drug stays in the body.
Studies list them so they can be avoided or switched; bring a list of everything you take, including supplements.
Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.
An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.
The other ingredients in a medicine besides the active drug, such as fillers, colours or preservatives.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
Cancer deposits in the brain from a cancer that started elsewhere in the body (CNS metastases include the spinal cord).
Studies differ: some leave out any brain metastases, some accept ones treated and stable for some weeks. Check what this study allows.
A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.
Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.
Histologically or cytologically confirmed
The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).
Your pathology report is the document that shows this.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Metastases
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ECOG performance status
A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.
Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Biopsy and archival tissue
A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.
Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hepatitis B tests
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hepatitis C tests
Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.
After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
HIV
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Clinically significant
Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
QT and QTc
On an ECG, the QT interval is the time the heart’s lower chambers take to activate electrically and recover in each beat. QTc is that time adjusted for heart rate (QTcF by Fridericia’s formula, QTcB by Bazett’s). Some medicines lengthen it, and a long QTc can raise the risk of a dangerous heart rhythm.
The study may name a correction formula and a limit in milliseconds, often around 450–480.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Corticosteroids (steroids)
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Investigational drug or device
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
CYP3A (CYP3A4) inhibitors and inducers
CYP3A is a group of enzymes, mainly CYP3A4, in the liver and gut that break down many medicines. Some medicines, supplements and foods (grapefruit, St John’s wort) slow them down or speed them up, which changes how much of a study drug stays in the body.
Studies list them so they can be avoided or switched; bring a list of everything you take, including supplements.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Live vaccines
Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hypersensitivity
An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Excipients
The other ingredients in a medicine besides the active drug, such as fillers, colours or preservatives.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Immunosuppression
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Brain metastases
Cancer deposits in the brain from a cancer that started elsewhere in the body (CNS metastases include the spinal cord).
Studies differ: some leave out any brain metastases, some accept ones treated and stable for some weeks. Check what this study allows.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Autoimmune disease
A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.
Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Participants receive opevesostat 5 mg by oral tablets twice daily (BID) plus dexamethasone 1.5 mg by oral tablets and fludrocortisone acetate 0.1 mg oral tablet once daily (QD) continuously until disease progression. Hydrocortisone 100 mg (oral or intramuscular \[IM\]) will also be provided to participants for use as rescue medication.
Drug: Opevesostat · Drug: Dexamethasone · Drug: Fludrocortisone acetate · Drug: Hydrocortisone
Participants receive abiraterone 1000mg QD by oral tablets plus prednisone 5 mg BID by oral tablets or enzalutamide 160 mg QD by oral tablets until disease progression.
Drug: Abiraterone acetate · Drug: Prednisone acetate · Drug: Enzalutamide
Administered orally
Also known as: MK-5684
Administered orally
Administered orally
Administered orally or IM as a rescue drug
Administered orally
Also known as: Zytiga, Yonsa
Administered orally
Administered orally
Also known as: Xtandi
Overall Survival (OS)
OS is defined as the time from randomization to death due to any cause.
Time frame: Up to approximately 82 months
Radiographic Progression-Free Survival (rPFS)
rPFS is defined as the time from randomization to the first documented disease progression per PCWG-modified RECIST 1.1 by BICR or death due to any cause, whichever occurs first.
Time frame: Up to approximately 52 months
Time to Initiation of the First Subsequent Anticancer Therapy (TFST)
TFST is defined as the time from randomization to initiation of the first subsequent anti-cancer therapy or death, whichever occurred first.
Time frame: Up to approximately 82 months
Objective Response Rate (ORR)
ORR is defined as the percentage of participants with Complete Response (CR: disappearance of all target lesions) or Partial Response (PR: at least a 30% decrease in the sum of diameters of target lesions) per PCWG-modified RECIST 1.1. The percentage of participants who experience CR or PR as assessed by BICR will be presented.
Time frame: Up to approximately 82 months
Duration of Response (DOR)
For participants who demonstrate confirmed CR or PR, duration of response is defined as the time from the first documented evidence of CR or PR until disease progression per PCWG-modified RECIST 1.1 as assessed by BICR or death from any cause, whichever occurs first.
Time frame: Up to approximately 82 months
Time to Pain Progression (TTPP)
TTPP is defined as the time from randomization to pain progression. TTTP is assessed by Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form (BPI-SF) Item 3 ("Worst Pain in 24 Hours") and opiate analgesic use (Analgesic Quantification Algorithm \[AQA\] Score).
Time frame: Up to approximately 82 months
Change From Baseline in Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) Total Score
The FACT-G is a health-related quality of life (HRQoL) 27-item questionnaire in participants being treated for cancer. The FACT-G subscales include Physical Well-Being (PWB), Social/Family Well-Being (SWB), Emotional Well-Being (EWB), and Functional Well-Being (FWB). All items are scored on a 5-point Likert scale of 0 (not at all) to 4 (very much). The total score can range from 0 to 108. Higher scores indicate higher HRQoL. The change from baseline in FACT-G total score will be reported.
Time frame: Baseline and up to approximately 82 months
Time to Deterioration (TTD) in FACT-G Total Score
The FACT-G is a HRQoL 27-item questionnaire in participants being treated for cancer. The FACT-G subscales include Physical Well-Being (PWB), Social/Family Well-Being (SWB), Emotional Well-Being (EWB), and Functional Well-Being (FWB). All items are scored on a 5-point Likert scale of 0 (not at all) to 4 (very much). The total score can range from 0 to 108. Higher scores indicate higher HRQoL. TTD in FACT-G total score will be reported.
Time frame: Up to approximately 82 months
Overall Improvement in FACT-G Total Score
The FACT-G is a HRQoL 27-item questionnaire in participants being treated for cancer. The FACT-G subscales include Physical Well-Being (PWB), Social/Family Well-Being (SWB), Emotional Well-Being (EWB), and Functional Well-Being (FWB). All items are scored on a 5-point Likert scale of 0 (not at all) to 4 (very much). The total score can range from 0 to 108. Higher scores indicate higher HRQoL. The overall improvement in FACT-G total score will be reported.
Time frame: Up to approximately 82 months
Time to Prostate-specific Antigen (PSA) Progression
The time to PSA progression is the time from randomization to PSA progression. The PSA progression date is defined as the date of: 1) ≥25% increase and ≥2 ng/mL above the nadir, confirmed by a second value ≥3 weeks later if there was PSA decline from baseline; OR 2) ≥25% increase and ≥2 ng/mL increase from baseline.
Time frame: Up to approximately 82 months
PSA Response Rate
The PSA response rate is the percentage of participants who had PSA response defined as a reduction in the PSA level from baseline by ≥50%. The reduction in PSA level was confirmed by an additional PSA evaluation performed ≥3 weeks from the original response.
Time frame: Up to approximately 82 months
Time to First Symptomatic Skeletal-Related Event (TSSRE)
TSSRE is the time from randomization to the first symptomatic skeletal-related event defined as: 1. use of external-beam radiation therapy (EBRT) to prevent or relieve skeletal symptoms 2. occurrence of new symptomatic pathologic bone fracture (vertebral or non-vertebral) 3. occurrence of spinal cord compression 4. tumor-related orthopedic surgical intervention, whichever occurs first.
Time frame: Up to approximately 82 months
Number of Participants Who Experience an AE
An AE is defined as any unfavorable and unfavorable and unintended sign, symptom, disease, or worsening of preexisting condition temporally associated with study treatment and irrespective of causality to study treatment. The number of participants who experience one or more AE will be reported.
Time frame: Up to approximately 82 months
Number of Participants Who Discontinue Study Treatment Due to an AE
An AE is defined as any unfavorable and unintended sign, symptom, disease, or worsening of preexisting condition temporally associated with study treatment and irrespective of causality to study treatment. The number of participants who discontinue study treatment due to an AE will be reported.
Time frame: Up to approximately 82 months
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Plan to share: Yes — https://trialstransparency.msdclinicaltrials.com/pdf/ProcedureAccessClinicalTrialData.pdf
Data sharing details ↗ · externaldatasharing-msd.com
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.
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Studies of the drug tested here: Opevesostat