TY - JOUR T1 - Promising 177Lu-PSMA-617 Therapy Results in Patients with Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer JF - Journal of Nuclear Medicine JO - J Nucl Med SP - 167 LP - 167 VL - 62 IS - supplement 1 AU - Antonio Brnjic AU - Sarah Frye AU - Crystal Botkin AU - Medhat Osman Y1 - 2021/05/01 UR - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/62/supplement_1/167.abstract N2 - 167Objectives: Theranostic drugs are radioactive drugs used to both diagnose and treat disease. 177Lu-PSMA-617 is a theranostic drug specifically designed to attach to prostate-specific membrane antigen, which is commonly found in cancerous prostate cells. 177Lu-PSMA-617 is for medical therapy use in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). 177Lu-PSMA-617 is currently only approved for use in Europe and Australia. It is currently awaiting FDA approval in the United States. The purpose of this study is to educate the medical community about the potential benefit and toxicity grades of 177Lu-PSMA-617 could have for patients if it is approved by the FDA. Methods: A literature review of 177Lu-PSMA-617 was performed. Google Scholar was the main database used. The keywords used in research were "177Lu-PSMA-617 toxicity" and "177Lu-PSMA-617 hematological toxicities". Results: Studies of 177Lu-PSMA-617 have shown toxicity to be fairly low; the most serious and most common side effect is hematological toxicity, specifically leukocytopenia. This is mainly due to the fact that 177Lu has a long half-life and is a beta emitter, which destroys cells. This is beneficial for killing cancerous cells; however, they damage our benign cells as well. Literature indicated patients in177Lu-PSMA-617 clinical trials reported having hematological toxicity. Hematological toxicity is defined as a decrease in bone marrow and blood cells that can lead to infection, bleeding, or anemia. The National Institute of Health has 4 grades of toxicity. Grade 0 indicates there is no toxicity. Grade 1 being mild and not requiring any medical intervention. Grade 2 is moderate and requiring some medical intervention. Grades 3 & 4 are high and requiring more medical intervention. Toxicity is monitored by performing a blood panel test before and after each treatment cycle. A study showed that 10-25 % of men with significant bone metastasis had Grade I-II reduction in hemoglobin, WBCs, and platelets. In another study, it showed that 37% of the patients in the clinical trial had Grade II lymphocytoma which was attributed to the PSMA.However, studies containing a slightly larger group of patients actually showed a reduction in hematological toxicities after the patients started the radioligand therapy compared to typical chemotherapy treatments. 177Lu-PSMA-617 has no reported cardiologic toxicities compared to the standard of care chemotherapy drugs. In addition, perhaps the most impressive thing that 177Lu-PSMA-617 offers men with mCRPC is that their overall survival is higher than the basic standard of care (chemotherapy and radiation). The group that had the basic standard of care were all deceased before 40 weeks of therapy. 30% of the patients who received PSMA therapy, were still alive at 50 weeks post therapy. Conclusions: 177Lu-PSMA-617 is a therapeutic and diagnostic drug specifically designed to treat mCRPC. The results from Australian and German clinical trials give hope to those suffering with mCRPC. The drug shows minimal toxicity to the human body, deeming it safe for use. Also, patients with mCRPC have a better response to treatment and thus can live longer than those who are receiving basic standard of care. 177Lu-PSMA-617 is a promising theranostic drug and may make a difference in treatment when approved in the United States. ER -