Here is a link to a short description and video concerning one of the new Lu-177 PSMA linked treatments from Endocyte, who I think is the patent holder of the treatment.
As a very short and non-technical explanation, I thought it was pretty good. The video may help people to visualize what the treatment does.
I find this treatment intriguing but I should always add the warning that, like all of the other prostate cancer treatments, it's not a cure, not all patients will benefit from it and, of those that do, some will benefit more or less than others.
Alan
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AlanMeyer
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Thanks Alan, just had a PSMA-PET scan in Germany and this explains how PSMA works. They told me when I was there that they are treating prostate cancer everyday with PSMA based therapy. The results were not as bad as I feared. Cancer is in one lymph node in my left lilac area. Waiting for an appointment here in Ireland for treatment options.
For a patient being treated with Lutetium how often are injections of the medication and other medications. Also how often are trips for check-ups , scans , or blood work etc. Are overnight stays necessary for next-day evaluations or blood draws ? Answers to these questions would be helpful to me and others in our group if any of you can provide them.
Here are a couple of useful sentences that bear on your questions:
"Injected doses have ranged from 3 to 8 GBq per single injections with up to six injections given to men, generally at a minimum 6‐weekly intervals. Dose calculations for individual patients have been determined from a combination of disease burden, patient weight and renal function." [In case you're interested, the "GBq" are giga-becquerels, i.e., billions of nuclear decays per second.]
I believe that the intervals ("minimum 6-weekly") are selected to give the Lu-177 time to complete its radioactive decay and be flushed from the system, and to allow the healthy cells affected by radiation to fully recover. As for the number of treatments given, I think that depends on how well the patient is responding to them. If he has stopped responding, then there's more harm than good in continuing more treatments.
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