The Department of Nuclear Medicine of the University of the Free State (UFS) accomplished a breakthrough in the treatment of patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (MCRPC), an advanced stage of prostate cancer, giving hope to affected patients. This treatment is made possible by using Lutetium 177 PSMA (Lu-177 PSMA) therapy after a failed first-line chemotherapy, the university announced on Wednesday (31/08).
Thus far, three patients have been offered this therapeutic option, with the third patient currently undergoing his treatment. The varsity’s team is made of Dr Gerrit Engelbrecht, clinical head of the department, Dr Osayande Evbuomwan, nuclear medicine specialist and senior lecturer, and nuclear medicine registrars Drs Walter Endres and Tebatso Tebeila.
Engelbrecht says treatment began over a year ago.
He explained that Lutetium 177 PSMA (Lu-177 PSMA) therapy is used on MCRPC-patients who are not eligible for chemotherapy or have failed first or second-line chemotherapy.
According to Engelbrecht, UFS and the Free State province are now joining other South African medical universities, such as the University of Pretoria, and other provinces in using this method to treat MCRPC-patients. “The university and Universitas Academic Hospital have now been able to join up with other academic institutions and hospitals in other provinces to offer these services. It is a big win for the Free State and our oncology patients to be able to offer these expert services,” he said.
Evbuomwan completed his basic training of this therapy at the University of the Witwatersrand. He states the ability to administer this treatment puts the department, UFS, the hospital, and other top universities on the map. “It also creates an avenue for us to gather data for training, research purposes, and publications. This treatment has been offered in other institutions in the country for a while, including centres overseas. Its result has been shown to be promising, which has encouraged us to start the treatment in the Free State,” said Evbuomwan.
The treatment is, however, pricey. According to Evbuomwan, the treatment costs approximately
R240 000 and one dose costs about R60 000. “Most patients usually will need a minimum of four doses. It is quite expensive for individual patients to pay. We are grateful to the province to be able to provide some funds for this treatment at the Universitas Academic Hospital,” said Evbuomwan.
He said the team will study the efficacy of the treatment on patients. “We as the team here will study its efficacy on our own patient population to be able to better predict which exact patients will have maximum benefit from the treatment,” he said.
