New treatment could improve outcomes for early-stage prostate cancer

SYDNEY - Australian research has revealed that a targeted radioactive therapy, traditionally used for late-stage prostate cancer, is also effective in treating patients with early-stage prostate cancer, reported Xinhua.

In a study published recently, a team led by researchers from the world-leading Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne found that Lutetium-177 PSMA-617, commonly known as LuPSMA, therapy can significantly improve outcomes for early-stage prostate cancer patients.

LuPSMA therapy is a targeted radioactive infusion treatment that has been proven to extend lives, and improve quality of life, for patients with advanced prostate cancers who have exhausted all other options.

The new study was the first to test the treatment on patients with newly-diagnosed prostate cancers that had spread. Over 100 patients from 11 Melbourne hospitals were enrolled in the trial and were randomised to receive either chemotherapy alone, which is the standard of care, or chemotherapy and LuPSMA.

It found that 41 per cent of participants in the LuPSMA group had undetectable levels of Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA), a biomarker for prostate cancer, compared to 16 per cent in the standard-of-care group at 48 weeks after treatment.

"Adding LuPSMA therapy to the standard-of-care approach was seen to dramatically improve responses compared to chemotherapy alone," Arun Azad, a medical oncologist at the centre and co-author of the research, said in a media release.

"This is a remarkable result however before we can say this should change clinical practice we need to see this replicated in a larger Phase III clinical trial and, thankfully, a trial like this is already underway globally," he said.

The research was primarily funded by the Prostate Cancer Research Alliance, which is a collaboration between the Australian government's Medical Research Future Fund and leading men's cancer charity Movember. - BERNAMA-XINHUA