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A new treatment strategy tested by UCLA researchers could offer new hope for men whose prostate cancer has returned after initial treatment.
This approach could also help delay the need for hormone therapy, which can have burdensome side effects.
The findings, which were presented at the annual American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) meeting this week, showed that combining a targeted radioactive drug with standard radiation therapy more than doubled the amount of time patients remained free of disease progression.
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The study focused on men with a form of cancer recurrence where the disease had returned in only a few isolated spots. Traditionally, this has been treated with a type of focused radiation called stereotactic body radiation therapy, a highly precise type of radiation therapy used to treat tumors in the body.
The UCLA-led team wanted to determine whether adding a PSMA-targeted radioligand therapy, a radioactive drug that zeroes in on cancer cells, would be more effective, according to a press release.
The researchers enrolled 92 men with recurring prostate cancer into the trial. Half received radiation alone, while the other half received the new drug plus radiation.
The men who received both treatments stayed cancer-free for a median of nearly 18 months, compared to about seven months for those who got radiation alone.
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“This is the first randomized trial to show that PSMA-targeting radioligand can significantly delay progression when added to metastasis-directed radiation,” Dr. Amar Kishan, executive vice chair of radiation oncology at UCLA and lead author of the study, told Fox News Digital.
Kishan called the work “a great example of true collaboration between radiation oncology and nuclear medicine.”
One of the biggest benefits is the potential for patients to delay starting hormone therapy, according to Kishan. While this is a common next step, it often brings side effects like fatigue, bone loss and mood changes.
“It gives patients more time before needing hormonal therapy,” Kishan said. “Avoiding or delaying hormonal therapy consistently benefits quality of life.”
Despite the improvements, the cancer eventually came back for many of the patients.
“There is always room for improvement,” Kishan noted. “There were still progression events … so there may be ways to optimize the treatment further.”
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The new drug, called 177Lu-PNT2002, is not yet FDA-approved for use at this stage of disease.
For now, Kishan recommends that men who are experiencing a spread of their prostate cancer to areas outside the prostate should “seek a consultation with a radiation oncologist to explore options.”
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