Can anyone share their experience with Pluvicto?
My 85 year old dad has prostate cancer that has metastasized to his bones. Zytiga is no longer effective. He is considering Pluvicto. I would appreciate input from those who have used Pluvicto.
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Is your tumor MSI-H?
At the last Ancan.org Advanced prostate cancer meeting one of the participants had just had his first Pluvicto treatment.
He had a lot of mets and after the treatment, the PET scan showed him much clearer, but he had terrible side effects from the Pluvicto and can’t do another session for a while, if at all. Unfortunately, I don’t recall the specifics of all of his side effects other than extreme fatigue. His PSA did go down as well.
I did not have a "flare up". Fortunately, my PSA improved from a failed chemo (2 doses) PSA @ 13 Each test after Pluvicto started was under 1. The PSA test a month after Pluvicto ended (6 treatments) was 0.11. Scans came back with the words "Remarkable improvement". I had a total turn around, but 3/5/25 my PSA had risen to 4.01 and I'm now on a different Chemo. Now looking for a 2nd Pluvicto Treatment, but not clear as to FDA approval which I'll need to have Medicare cover the substantial expense. Original diagnoses 2016, I'm 74 now and still active. Looking for other options......
I did not have a PSA increase after any of my Pluvicto treatments, but a few other patients in my group did. To my knowledge (within my group of 80 or so), almost all of these patients had an eventual PSA decline. My non-medical, but very experienced Pluvicto patient opinion, including being one of the original clinical trial guinea pigs, believes your doctor is going down the correct path to proceed with the next treatment, then test for results. Stay focused, informed and do what needs to be done.
My husband had all six Pluvicto infusions and didn't have a PSA flare, though he has had flares during and after other treatments. I know of other men who did have PSA flares during and after Pluvicto treatment. Most important is that you have had several oncologists analyze your situation and recommend that you have another Pluvicto infusion and then do scans two weeks after the infusion and decide on the path forward based on those results. It is terrific that you have had so many doctors consult on your case, and the recommendation they have made seems very reasonable. Good work by them, and by you! Good luck with your next steps.
Has anyone heard information on whether the radiation of Pluvicto targets and damages healthy tissue as well the cancerous tissue? Asking because salvage radiation damaged my bladder and destroyed the urethra. Want to avoid a reoccurrence.
To @lsk1000
Pluvicto can also affect healthy cells, particularly those that express PSMA, which is a protein found on some healthy cells as well as cancer cells. This can lead to side effects like low blood cell counts, kidney damage, and fatigue,
Pluvicto presents a much lower risk of radiation damage to healthy cells, because it is not a beam, but a molecule that targets only cells that express PSMA. Here is an excerpt from the Mayo entry about Pluvicto:
Treatments that target PSMA: Radiopharmaceutical treatments can target a protein that's common on prostate cancer cells called prostate-specific membrane antigen. It's also called PSMA. One radiopharmaceutical medicine that works in this way is lutetium Lu-177 vipivotide tetraxetan (Pluvicto). This medicine contains a molecule that finds and sticks to the PSMA on prostate cancer cells. The medicine also contains a radioactive substance. A healthcare professional gives this medicine through a vein. The medicine finds the prostate cancer cells and releases the radiation directly into the cells. It can treat prostate cancer anywhere in the body. PSMA therapy only works if the prostate cancer cells have the PSMA protein. Side effects include dry mouth, dry eyes, nausea and feeling very tired.
Yes--this is an important addition to the information in the Mayo excerpt I just posted. Thank you, Jeff.
We were posting within 4 minutes of each other, your reply was not there when I started my reply, funny how that happens. Fortunately, we both supplied different information.