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PSMA targeted radioligandtherapy in metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer after chemotherapy, abiraterone and/or enzalutamide. A retrospective analysis of overall survival

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European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Aim

Our aim was to evaluate overall survival and parameters prognosticating longer survival in a large and homogeneous group of patients treated with 177Lu-PSMA-617 radioligand therapy with heavily pretreated advanced metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer.

Methods

A total of 104 patients were treated with 351 cycles of 177Lu-PSMA-617. Prostate specific antigen (PSA) changes after the first cycle of therapy were documented prior to a second cycle. Patients were followed-up for overall survival (OS). Any PSA decline, PSA decline ≥50%, initial PSA, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), visceral metastases and cumulative injected activity were analyzed and evaluated according to OS. Multivariable analysis with parameters with a p-value ≤0.05 in univariate analysis was performed, additionally adjusting for age and presence of visceral metastases.

Results

A total of 51 patients (49%) died during the observation period. The majority of patients (97%) presented with bone metastases, 77% with lymph node metastases and 32% with visceral metastases. All patients were treated with at least one line of chemotherapy. Either abiraterone or enzalutamide had been given in 100% of the patients. Any PSA decline occurred in 70 (67%) and a PSA decline ≥50% in 34 (33%) of patients after the first cycle. The median OS was 56.0 weeks (95%CI: 50.5–61.5). Initial PSA decline ≥50%, initial LDH, visceral metastases, second line chemotherapy or prior radium-223 did not have an effect on survival, whereas any initial PSA decline, initial ALP <220 U/L and cumulative injected activity ≥18.8 GBq were associated with a longer survival. A step-by-step analysis revealed a PSA decline ≥20.87% as the most noticeable cut-off prognosticating longer survival, which remained an independent prognosticator of improved OS in the multivariate analysis.

Conclusion

177Lu-PSMA-617 RLT is a new effective therapeutic and seems to prolong survival in patients with advanced mCRPC pretreated with chemotherapy, abiraterone and/or enzalutamide.

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Acknowledgments

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.

Disclosures

The University of Münster received consulting fees from ABX Advanced Biochemical Compounds, Radeberg, Germany for K.R., M.B. and M.E.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Muenster, Muenster, Germany

    K. Rahbar & M. Schäfers

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

    M. Boegemann

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

    A. Yordanova, M. Essler & H. Ahmadzadehfar

  4. Institute of Biostatistics and Clinical Research, University Hospital Muenster, Muenster, Germany

    M. Eveslage

Authors
  1. K. Rahbar
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  2. M. Boegemann
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  3. A. Yordanova
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  4. M. Eveslage
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  5. M. Schäfers
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  6. M. Essler
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  7. H. Ahmadzadehfar
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Correspondence to K. Rahbar.

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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., Boegemann, M., Yordanova, A. et al. PSMA targeted radioligandtherapy in metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer after chemotherapy, abiraterone and/or enzalutamide. A retrospective analysis of overall survival. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 45, 12–19 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-017-3848-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-017-3848-4

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