“Very exciting treatment”: New advanced prostate cancer drug available in Canada | Globalnews.ca

Just by looking at Ward Carson, you would never know he was ill.

The 79-year-old Halifax man has been living with metastatic prostate cancer for 19 years.

“It hasn’t had a huge impact on the way I live my life,” he said. “My wife used to say to me, ‘I can’t believe you’re sick.'”

But he is ill, and according to his latest prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, his PSA – an indicator of prostate cancer – is rising.

“I think it’s only in the last six or eight months that it’s jumped a little bit, and now it’s jumping again,” Carson said.

His enlarged prostate was first discovered in 2003, and he subsequently had a prostatectomy, a procedure to remove part or all of the prostate. But cancer cells stayed and spread or metastasized. He’s had hormone therapy, radiation, and finally drug treatment to keep the cancer’s spread in check.

“And (these measures) have worked in recent years, but their impact seems to have waned,” he told Global News.

“Unfortunately, my cancer has metastasized to my spine and there is no procedure to operate on and remove part of my spine.”

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“Eventually, under the influence of these treatments, the cancer cells learn to live and start growing again,” said Dr. Ricardo Rendon, a urological oncologist and professor in the Department of Urology at Dalhousie University.

Usually, when prostate cancer progresses through all treatments, doctors can’t offer much more, he said.

That is, until now.

“We have a new treatment that is brand new and available to our patients who had nothing else to get as their disease progressed,” he said.

Pluvicto, which was approved in Canada just last month, will enable physicians to target and treat specific cancer cells for the first time.

“Rather than being a shotgun approach to treating cancer, it’s a missile straight to the prostate cancer cells,” Rendon said.

This targeted approach will not only help patients live longer and with a much better quality of life, but will also produce fewer side effects associated with other treatments.

“It’s very difficult to talk to a patient and tell them that we don’t have anything else to offer for the disease… So to be able to offer that to these patients is amazing,” Rendon said.

Only four percent of advanced prostate cancer cases are preventable based on currently known risk factors, which is why advances in prostate cancer treatment are critical, Rendon said.

“Since 2004, we’ve approved about six to eight new drugs thanks to hundreds of clinical trials and many thousands of patients who have gone through this,” he said. “In those 15 years, we were able to almost triple the life expectancy of patients with advanced prostate cancer.”

The ongoing research is not lost on Carson, who understands this new drug could be his last treatment option.

“DR. Rendon didn’t say, ‘We can either put you in the study or try Drug B,’ so I’m not sure what else is out there for me,” Carson said.

“The idea of ​​this radioactive drug finding the prostate cancer cells and attaching themselves to them and emitting only them – sounds brilliant to me and hopefully it will work.”

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