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Delayed response after repeated 177Lu-PSMA-617 radioligand therapy in patients with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer

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Abstract

Purpose

Radioligand therapy (RLT) using Lutetium-177 labeled PSMA-617 (Lu-PSMA) ligand is a new therapeutic option for salvage therapy in heavily pretreated patients with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer. The aim of this retrospective study was to analyze response in patients receiving 3 cycles of Lu-PSMA.

Methods

Seventy-one patients (median age: 72 years; range 44–87) received 3 cycles of RLT with Lu-PSMA (mean administered activity: 6.016 ± 0.543 GBq) every 8 weeks. Response was evaluated using serum PSA levels and a PSA decline ≥50% was considered as biochemical response. Additionally, any PSA decline after the first cycle was evaluated for further therapy effects after the second and third cycle.

Results

A total of 213 cycles were performed in 71 patients. Data for response and adverse events were available for all patients. A PSA decline ≥50% and some PSA decline occurred in 56% and 66% of the patients. Of 30 patients with a PSA response after the first cycle, 28 remained responders and 12/41 of non-responders responded to further therapy cycles.

Conclusion

RLT with Lu-177-PSMA-617 shows respectable response rates. In this retrospective analysis, a relevant number of patients showed a delayed response, even if they did not respond to the first cycle of the therapy.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Radiochemistry Group at both Departments of Nuclear Medicine for their highly reliable production of 177Lu-PSMA-617, and the nursing staff and the nuclear medicine technologists for their support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Muenster, Albert-Schweitzer-Campus 1, 48149, Muenster, Germany

    Kambiz Rahbar & Michael Schäfers

  2. Department of Urology, University Hospital Muenster, Muenster, Germany

    Martin Bögeman

  3. Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Anna Yordanova, Markus Essler & Hojjat Ahmadzadehfar

  4. Institute for Biostatistics, University Hospital Muenster, Muenster, Germany

    Maria Eveslage

Authors
  1. Kambiz Rahbar
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  2. Martin Bögeman
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  3. Anna Yordanova
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  4. Maria Eveslage
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  5. Michael Schäfers
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  6. Markus Essler
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  7. Hojjat Ahmadzadehfar
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kambiz Rahbar.

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Disclosures

The University of Muenster received consulting fees from ABX Advanced Biochemical Compounds, Radeberg, Germany for K.R., M.B. and M.E. The authors declare they have no conflict of interest according to the subject and matter of the presented article.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no financial or non-financial competing interests.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. This study was approved by the local ethics committee (No. 2016–585-f-S, Ethikkommission der Ärztekammer Westfalen-Lippe und der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster).

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Rahbar, K., Bögeman, M., Yordanova, A. et al. Delayed response after repeated 177Lu-PSMA-617 radioligand therapy in patients with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 45, 243–246 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-017-3877-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-017-3877-z

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