Research and innovation drive advanced prostate cancer treatments
Mays Cancer Center Annual Report
One in eight men will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime. Of those, one in 44 will die of the disease. Those statistics from the American Cancer Society are startling.
But men facing an advanced prostate cancer diagnosis who are seeking additional treatment options now have more options for fighting the disease. University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio continues to expand treatment options, now and into the future.
Pluvicto, a game-changing molecular therapy treatment
UT Health San Antonio was the first civilian institution in South Texas to offer a novel targeted molecular therapy using a radioactive drug to fight metastatic castrationresistant prostate cancer. It’s called Lutetium-177 PSMA therapy for prostate cancer (Pluvicto).
According to Penny Vroman, MD, a nuclear radiologist and associate professor in the Department of Radiology at UT Health San Antonio, the new treatment is a game changer for men when multiple other types of treatment, including chemotherapy, have failed.
“What’s unique about this therapy versus traditional chemotherapy that affects the whole body is that this is a targeted molecular therapy,” she said. “So, whereas chemotherapy kills both cancer cells and good cells throughout the entire body, which is why patients tend to have more side effects, this new treatment binds only to the prostate cancer cell and kills those prostate cancer cells.”
Vroman said that because of the treatment’s precise nature, patients are more likely to tolerate it better than other treatments.
