The Reading Room Podcast: Emerging Trends with Theranostics in Prostate Cancer, Part 2

There are several ongoing clinical trials looking at the use of alpha-emitting, prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-targeting therapy for patients with prostate cancer (PCa), according to Jeremie Calais, M.D., Ph.D. During a new Diagnostic Imaging podcast, Dr. Calais suggested the potential of this modality’s efficacy and reduced side effects could eventually lead to a significant role in this patient population.

“Maybe in 10 years, I think Pluvicto will be replaced by alpha-emitting agents targeting PSMA. That may be something that I foresee,” posited Dr. Calais, the director of the theranostics program with the Ahmanson Translational Theranostics Division at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

While cautioning that the research is in the “very early days on alpha emitters,” Robert Flavell, M.D., Ph.D., said preliminary data has shown encouraging efficacy and noted other potential attributes.

“The side effect profile is a little different with the alpha emitters. They seem to have a much more pronounced xerostomia or a dry mouth, but perhaps less toxicity in other areas like the bone marrow. So we'll see how that all plays out. Another potential advantage for alpha emitters is relatively simplified radiation handling because you're typically giving much lower administered activities, and they have lower gamma fractions, so the patients are emitting a lot less radiation to the environment and to family members,” pointed out Dr. Flavell, the chief of molecular imaging and the Therapeutics Clinical Section in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

(Editor’s note: For related content, see “The Reading Room Podcast: Emerging Trends with Theranostics in Prostate Cancer, Part 1,” “PSMA PET/CT Facilitates Better Long-Term Survival Rates After Salvage Radiotherapy for Recurrent PCa” and “SNMMI: Can Multimodal Monitoring Bolster Outcomes with Pluvicto in Treating mCRPC?”)

For more insights from Dr. Calais and Dr. Flavell, listen below or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.