Phillip S. Low, PhD, Discusses Next Steps in Research of 177Lu-PSMA-617 for mCRPC and Other Cancers
Phillip S. Low, PhD, spoke about what the future holds for treatments like 177Lu-PSMA-617 being developed for patients with prostate cancer.
EP: 1.FDA Approves 177Lu-PSMA-617 for Pretreated PSMA+ Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
EP: 2.Phillip S. Low, PhD, Provides In-Depth View of 177Lu-PSMA-617 Development for Metastatic CRPC
EP: 3.Phillip S. Low, PhD, Discusses Next Steps in Research of 177Lu-PSMA-617 for mCRPC and Other Cancers
In an interview with CancerNetwork®, Phillip S. Low, PhD, Presidential Scholar for Drug Discovery and Ralph C. Corley Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, and key investigator in the development of 177Lu-PSMA-617 (Pluvicto), spoke about the future of treatments for patients with metastatic prostate cancer. 177Lu-PSMA-617 was recently approved for patients with prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)–positive, castration-resistant prostate cancer who have previously been treated with an androgen-receptor pathway inhibitor and taxane-based chemotherapy based on data from the phase 3 VISION trial (NCT03511664) which examined the agent plus standard of care vs standard of care alone in this setting.
Low emphasized the need for further development of radioligands to help patients with earlier-stage disease when its possible for complete eradication.
Transcript:
There are 2 directions that clinical research can go. One is to move this therapy to earlier and earlier stages of prostate cancer. Right now, it’s only approved for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, and this is really the end stage of the disease. [By this time] the cancer has mutated significantly so that it’s become much more difficult to kill and to eradicate. If we move to earlier stages of the disease before the cancer has had a chance to develop all these resistance mutations, this will be much more effective. At least it’s anticipated to be, we’ll have to wait and see. If that proves to be the case, the benefit to the patient will be even greater. The other direction is, of course, although prostate cancer is the major cancer that overexpresses PSMA, there are several other cancers that express high levels of PSMA, and it will be important to go after and demonstrate the benefit of using this approach in other cancers also.
