Declan Murphy on Theranostics and Future of PSMA PET/CT for Prostate Cancer

From the 2020 SUO Meeting, Professor Declan Murphy, of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, spoke with CancerNetwork about the future of PSMA PET/CT imaging and the looming advancements with PSMA theranostics.

Transcription:

But finally, the really, really big area looming on the horizon is PSMA theranostics. So, because we know the PSMA molecule is overexpressed on aggressive prostate cancer, especially for example metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, we can actually target that using theranostic agents. So, when the PET scan shows lots of this avidity and so on, we can then label a PSMA molecule with a therapy molecule like for example lutetium-177, a beta-emitter. Effectively you can inject this combined ligand with the PSMA ligand and the lutetium, and the lutetium will be brought to the sites of disease.

So, I think this area will be one in which we will have many, many opportunities to see how we can improve outcomes for patients because these therapy projects will be easier to measure in terms of oncologic outcomes compared to the diagnostic opportunities we already have with PSMA PET/CT. So, I think it’s a very exciting decade or more ahead for those interested in PSMA and prostate cancer.