Frederick Health says it is now offering a targeted radiation treatment for advanced prostate cancer to patients across western Maryland, a therapy that attaches to cancer cells and delivers radiation directly to them through a simple IV. The treatment, known as radioligand therapy, has been proven successful in some cases with just one treatment, and hospital officials are calling its arrival in the region a breakthrough for local cancer patients.
Frederick Health doctor Gregory Gagnon described radioligand therapy as a breakthrough in oncology, according to DC News Now. Gagnon has said the treatment is more effective than chemotherapy and other existing treatments while also being more precise, and that scientists have worked to perfect radioligand therapy over the past 20 years. Frederick Health itself frames the arrival of the treatment as bringing breakthrough therapy for advanced prostate cancer to Frederick County.
How the Treatment Targets Cancer Cells
Radioligand therapy works by linking a substance that targets cancer with a radioactive element, according to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Those radioactive particles kill cancer cells while minimizing damage to healthy tissue, the same source notes, and like chemotherapy, the treatment is delivered through an IV. Patients receiving the therapy can go home right away after the procedure, though those discharged are required to follow a few simple precautions.
One specific FDA-approved version of this approach is Pluvicto, a radioligand therapy for men with PSMA-positive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, per the Chesapeake Medical Radiation Oncology Center, or cmradonc.org. The treatment attaches to PSMA, a protein found on prostate cancer cells, and releases radiation directly into those cells. Before treatment begins, a specialized imaging scan confirms that a patient's cancer is PSMA-positive, the center explains.
Dosing Schedule and Reported Side Effects
Pluvicto is typically given by IV injection or infusion roughly every six weeks for up to six treatments, depending on how a patient responds, according to Virginia Cancer Specialists. At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, patients likewise receive the drug as six separate infusions spaced about six weeks apart, per MSKCC. Common side effects reported by cmradonc.org include fatigue, nausea, dry mouth, decreased appetite, and changes in blood counts.
In one comparison cited by Virginia Cancer Specialists, men who received Pluvicto alongside the best standard of care lived a median of four months longer than those on standard care alone — 15.3 months compared with 11.3 months. Dana-Farber separately notes that side effects from radioligand therapy tend to be less severe than those from chemotherapy. The approach Frederick Health is introducing was first approved by the FDA in March 2022, according to Virginia Cancer Specialists.
A Growing Field With Questions Still Unanswered
Frederick Health is not the first hospital system to add this kind of care. Upstate Radiology, working alongside hematology/oncology and urology teams at the Upstate Cancer Center, has offered both Lutathera and Pluvicto, treatments that target neuroendocrine and prostate cancers respectively, according to Upstate University. Multiple forms of radioligand therapy are now approved nationally to treat prostate cancer, neuroendocrine tumors, thyroid cancer, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, per Dana-Farber.
Research published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information describes radioligand therapy as a targeted approach that has shown safety and effectiveness across several disease states, including gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, lymphoma, and advanced prostate cancer, per pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Still, long-term safety studies are needed, according to experts cited by the National Cancer Institute. For now, Frederick Health's expansion gives western Maryland patients access to a treatment option that, elsewhere, has already reshaped care for some of the hardest-to-treat prostate cancer cases.
