One of the most common cancers in men is prostate cancer and now a new treatment option is helping those who have been diagnosed with the disease.
For the last two years, Bill Fergen has been fighting prostate cancer.
“He’s been through multiple different treatments, including testosterone blockers and chemotherapy and his prostate cancer was getting worse,” said medical oncologist, Avera Medical Group, Ally Higgins, MD.
That’s when Higgins suggested he try a new treatment.
“Pluvicto has been approved just within this last year. It is a basically targeted radiation, that goes straight to the prostate cancer cells, because it finds this special marker on prostate called PSMA, which is prostate specific membrane antigen,” said Higgins.
Patients receive a total of six infusions, each one is six weeks apart.
Fergen started this treatment about six months ago and this is his last dose, making it an exciting day.
“When Dr. Higgins took over my case, she said ‘Bill I think we better try this,’ and I said ‘I’m willing,’ and I’m glad I did,” Fergen said.
His PSA levels were originally very high, and over the course of his treatment, the number has decreased.
“It was 175, now it’s down to 1.02; that’s awesome,” said Fergen.
So how does it work to fight the cancer?
“I like to think of Pluvicto as a lock and key method. The prostate cancer cells are the lock and the Pluvicto is the key, so Pluvicto has the targeting compound which knows exactly to go to the prostate cancer cells, and then it also has the radio isotope attached to it and that’s what kills the cancer cells. When Pluvicto attaches to the prostate cancer, it’s the key to the lock,” said nuclear medicine technologist, Myriah Hollinsworth.
For patients to be eligible, there are a few requirements they must meet.
“First when we were thinking about this for Bill we did need to get a special scan to see if he was eligible for the treatment, and that scan is called a PSMA PET scan. It specifically looks to see if his prostate cancer has this marker on it, and it did,” said Higgins. “A patient has to have had progression of the cancer on testosterone blockers as well as one line of chemotherapy.”
While Fergen has been through ups and downs in his cancer journey, his progress has been hopeful for him and Avera staff.
“It’s been really encouraging to see Bill throughout his treatment and see him respond so well, as he was saying, his PSA was pretty high before starting the treatment, and with each treatment it has slowly come down which is really encouraging, and that’s what we want to see,” said Hollinsworth.
“I’m very grateful for Avera and their staff, I can’t thank them enough,” said Fergen.
Dr. Higgins says it’s an exciting development in cancer care because it gives patients another option to consider when their options may have been limited before.
