I am receiving the pluvicto treatment without having had chemotherapy.

My oncologist has basically done everything else and all other treatments have run their course and are no longer effective.

I lobbied him for several months to give me pluvicto. I specifically declined chemotherapy as it made no sense to me to kill off the good with the bad and hope that the good came back faster than the bad

He was prevented from doing this by the FDA guidelines which strictly adhered to the earlier clinical trial procedures of requiring chemotherapy first. That requirement was compounded by a manufacturing bottleneck which resulted in there not being enough Pluvecto to satisfy the demand even for those who already had chemotherapy.

The manufacturer solved the supply problem and at the same time began to loosen the real need for chemotherapy as a requirement to undergo this treatment. I went through the scans that showed my prostate cancer was indeed of the psma positive variety and that, plus the internal papers from the manufacturer was enough to get the treatment approved by my insurance.

I just had my second session. The first session went well, with a week of isolation. Side effects were constipation, even more fatigue and lack of energy, and boredom. After that my pain levels decreased noticeably and the increased fatigue went away. I think I am the very first patient of this oncologist to undergo the Pluvecto treatment without having had chemotherapy and I would rate it a success.