There is a new prostate cancer treatment for patients who have used up all of their alternatives.
The treatment uses what is called radiopharmaceutical therapy, which finds the tumor and binds to it with a medication or actual radiation. In this latest treatment, radioactive Lutetium attaches a new drug to a tumor biomarker called PSMA, for prostate-specific membrane antigen. This drug hasn't been given a marketing name yet, but in medical research, it's called 177Lu-PSMA-617.
"This is a patient population that according to that graph from local therapy, all the way to exhausting all systemic management, this is a unique patient population that really didn't have much in the way of any other options remaining," said Michael Kuettel, Radiation Medicine Department Professor and Chair at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Decades ago, Roswell Park developed the PSA test, used to diagnose prostate cancer. Kuettel said the new treatment is proven to extend life.
