Shanghai center tests nuclear medicine prostate cancer treatment
The first patient with prostate cancer undergoes radionuclide therapy at Shanghai Cancer Center.
Local doctors are trying radionuclide therapy, a method of nuclear medicine, on the treatment of patients with prostate cancer, the Shanghai Cancer Center announced on Friday after completing the first clinical trial.
The therapy, which targets a prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA), introduces Lu-177-PSMA-617 into the cancer for precise attack. The nuclides can enter the inside of the cancer to apply biological treatment and radiation in order to kill cancerous cells.
Dr Song Shaoli, director of the nuclear medicine department of the Shanghai Cancer Center, said overseas research has confirmed that Lu-177-PSMA-617 can achieve positive effects for patients in progressive stages and reach a 51 percent remission rate with good tolerance and safety. Only patients who test positive for high PSMA can receive the treatment. About 87 percent of patients have a high expression of PSMA.
Due to poor coverage of early screening, most prostate cancer patients in China are not detected until the disease is in the middle or terminal stage. The average survival time after diagnosis is only 12 to 18 months.
The patient in the clinical trial is a 67-year-old, who had no other treatment choices after undergoing endocrinotherapy, chemotherapy and targeted medicine. Doctors decided to first test the innovative nuclear medicine treatment on him.
Dr Dai Bo from the hospital's urinary surgery department said the nuclear treatment using radioactive beams to target prostate cancer lesions with high PSMA expression could strongly attack the cancer with only slight damage to nearby tissues, bringing new hope to patients.
