MedicTut

Researchers from the University of Heidelberg have discovered potentially correctable DNA mutations that are associated with the response of a prostate cancer tumor to radiopharmaceutical therapy. The scientists told about their work in an article published in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Prostate-specific membrane antigenic targeted alpha-radiation therapy (PSMA-TAT), which uses the drug 225Ac-PSMA-617, is a new and promising approach to the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. However, it is reported that 37% of patients do not respond well to this therapy, even if they have sufficient PSMA expression. Preclinical and other early studies show that certain gene mutations associated with DNA damage and repair can either increase or decrease the radiosensitivity of prostate cancer and affect the tumor response to radiopharmaceutical therapy.

The authors of the new study decided to find out the factors associated with this phenomenon. To do this, they selected 60 patients who received PSMA-TAT. As a result of the analysis, the scientists identified 10 patients with a poor response to therapy, despite sufficient expression of PSMA. The authors took biopsies from seven out of 10 patients, and then examined them using immunostaining and histological analysis. As a result, scientists were able to identify mutations in 37 genes involved in DNA damage recognition, signal transmission and DNA repair.

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