Clinical Trials e-Newsletter | January 2022
Exciting New Treatment Breakthroughs Are on
The Horizon for Prostate Cancer Patients
Prostate cancer clinical trials using Prostate-Specific-Membrane Antigen (PSMA) are ushering in a new generation of treatment therapies and diagnostic tools offering breakthrough benefits for patients.

PSMA is different from Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA). PSA floats freely in the blood, while PSMA is found at high concentration on the surface of prostate cancer cells compared to healthy prostate tissue. This major difference between prostate cancer tissue and healthy tissue, has opened the door for the creation of novel tools, which improves the identification (i.e., imaging drugs) and treatment (e.g., radioligand therapeutics) of prostate cancer.      
 
PSMA technology is made of two key parts, the first part attaches to the PSMA on the surface of cancer cells. The second part carries a radioactive compound, which either is detectable by a PET/CT scanner for imaging or is taken up by the cell and causes the cell to die (e.g., radioligand treatment therapy). PSMA imaging is already available and being used. Figure below gives an example of how radioligand therapy works.
The Vision clinical trial sponsored by Novartis is expected to result in the first PSMA treatment therapy approved by the FDA in 2022 for advanced prostate cancer patients. The PSMA breakthroughs are of great news for prostate cancer patients, because it helps doctors better identify and target prostate cancer in men who are newly diagnosed or have advanced prostate cancer.
 
To learn more about clinical trials, which incorporate PSMA, please review the trials below.
 
  • The PSMAfore clinical trial investigates whether advanced prostate cancer patients treated with a PSMA therapy before changing from one androgen deprivation therapy to another do better than those who did not receive the PSMA therapy.
  • The PSMAddition clinical trial compares patients treated with the PSMA therapy plus the standard of care treatment (SoC) to those receiving the SoC alone
  • The SPLASH clinical trial compares PSMA treated advanced cancer patients with those just receiving the standard of care treatment.
Clinical Trial Highlights
P-PSMA-101

This clinical trial is for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) that has worsened despite having received hormonal and chemotherapeutic treatments.
Splash

This trial is for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) who have progressed following treatment with androgen receptor axis-targeted therapy (ARAT) but who haven't yet received chemotherapy for mCRPC.
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PHEN Clinical Trial Sponsors