World-first prostate cancer trial shows new therapy is ‘safe and effective’

Thanks to the generosity of our Movember community, we’ve been able to support a world-first trial which has shown Lu-PSMA therapy is safe and effective for men with newly diagnosed localised prostate cancer.

The standard treatment for high-risk localised prostate cancer (where the cancer has not yet spread widely to other organs but is at high risk of growing) is surgery or radiotherapy.

However, in about half of the cases, despite the best efforts of clinicians, the cancer will come back and continue to grow and spread throughout the body.

In the last 10 years, Movember has been at the forefront of funding the development of a new type of treatment called Lu-PSMA therapy. It involves ‘mapping’ prostate cancer cells (which can be as small as a grain of rice) with a PET scan and then treating them with a drug that emits a radioactive payload.

Although this new therapy has been approved for some men with advanced prostate cancer, the LuTectomy trial was looking at whether men with high-risk localised prostate cancer could benefit from Lu-PSMA therapy in addition to the standard surgery.

Led by a team at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, the trial result showed for the first time, that Lu-PSMA therapy could be safely given to men before their surgery, without impacting the surgical procedure or post-surgery recovery.

This is because, unlike conventional radiotherapy that can damage surrounding tissue and make surgery afterwards complicated, the radiation in Lu-PSMA therapy only travels 1mm.

Further research is needed to determine if the new approach could stop prostate cancer from coming back entirely – which would revolutionise how men with high-risk localised prostate cancers are treated in the future.

Dr Sarah Hsiao, Director of Biomedical Research and Impact at Movember said: “The LuTectomy trial was the first study in the world to examine the use of Lu-PSMA therapy in this setting.

“While more research with larger scale clinical trials is needed to confirm whether the new approach can improve the cure rate for men whose prostate cancer have yet to spread widely, this trial has provided a unique opportunity to improve our understanding on how prostate cancer tumours respond to Lu-PSMA therapy.

“In the meantime, we’re proud to have supported research that leads the way in the development of new treatments that could improve the cure rate for men whose prostate cancer is at high risk of progressing to lethal disease.”

The LuTectomy trial was supported with funding from the Prostate Cancer Research Alliance, a joint intitiative between the Australian Government and Movember. It was presented at the EAU Annual Congress in Milan in March 2023.