Radioactive drugs strike cancer with precision - The tumor-seeking radiopharmaceuticals are charting a new...,Knowable Magazine, 06.13.2024

[cujoe]

A short overview history of the development, use, and specific characteristics of the most common targeted radiopharmaceuticals in use today, like Pluvicto, with much content focused on PCa. Very good article with a lot of development history most of us probably unaware of. The following paragraphs are the first in the much longer article:

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On a Wednesday morning in late January 1896, at a small light bulb factory in Chicago, a middle-aged woman named Rose Lee found herself at the heart of a groundbreaking medical endeavor. With an X-ray tube positioned above the tumor in her left breast, Lee was treated with a torrent of high-energy particles that penetrated into the malignant mass.

“And so,” as her treating clinician later wrote, “without the blaring of trumpets or the beating of drums, X-ray therapy was born.”

Radiation therapy has come a long way since those early beginnings. The discovery of radium and other radioactive metals opened the doors to administering higher doses of radiation to target cancers located deeper within the body. The introduction of proton therapy later made it possible to precisely guide radiation beams to tumors, thus reducing damage to surrounding healthy tissues — a degree of accuracy that was further refined through improvements in medical physics, computer technologies and state-of-the-art imaging techniques.

But it wasn’t until the new millennium, with the arrival of targeted radiopharmaceuticals, that the field achieved a new level of molecular precision. These agents, akin to heat-seeking missiles programmed to hunt down cancer, journey through the bloodstream to deliver their radioactive warheads directly at the tumor site.

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The full article can be found here:

Radioactive drugs strike cancer with precision - The tumor-seeking radiopharmaceuticals are charting a new course in oncology, with promise for targeted treatments with fewer side effects, Knowable Magazine, By Elie Dolgin, 06.13.2024

knowablemagazine.org/conten...

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As npfisherman has said many times . . . "The Science Is Coming"

Let's all of us try to Stay S&W while we wait for it to arrive.

Ciao - cujoe

[NPfisherman]

Terror Dog,

Have you thought about Pluvicto for you?? I am waiting for the RAVENS trial using SBRT and Xofigo... in the meantime, we soldier along...

Radiopharmaceuticals are a huge new development, and should be considered sooner for those with more aggressive types of PCa. The 50% survival rate at 5 years seems to be getting closer... The ACS will release their new data on survival rates in 2025 as I recall (don't rely on my old brain...lol)

The Science is Coming !!! and it gives us ....HOPE !!!

DD

[cujoe in reply to NPfisherman]

DD - I thought about PSMA therapy when it first hit the mainstream and even briefly considered doing what mateobeach did and go overseas for it. When it came to US, it was (as always is the case with new treatments) only available for heavily treated CR patients via clinical trials. (With my 2 x cancers, I will never qualify for any trial, so no go there even when some trials opened up for HS patients.) Off the cuff, I asked my MO a year or so back what it would cost to get Pluvicto at their treatment center . . . and he said (with a straight face) ~ $100K. 🙊 ⛔

I also see that the patient response to Pluvicto is pretty uneven and would guess that some genetic typing would be helpful in determining likely response. We see all the groundwork being laid for "personalized" medicine on an almost daily basis, but very little of it being used in the clinic outside of CTs. As a result, we may all be pushing up daisies before we ever see it benefiting our generation of patients.

PSMA theranostics is still not 'off the table' as far as I am concerned, but going overseas is the most likely option for me. I also think some of the newer radioligands may show better benefits than Pluvicto, so waiting might reveal a more effective treatment. The downside is that the longer I wait, the less effective it would likely be - as non-PSMA avid mutations are sure to be occurring and multiplying over time.

However, as you know, I have made QOL my priority, and right now my QOL is Excelente!!! So, even doing a trial run on the BAT hormonal roller-coaster would interrupt what is darn close to perfection now vs. some unknown QOL later.

Hoping to Keep It S&W, Ciao - cujoe