Essential health information from local experts

Seek & Destroy: The New Drug Beating Prostate Cancer

With Urologic Oncology Surgeon Robert Carey, MD, PhD, FACS

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men in the United States, affecting roughly 1 in 8 at some point in their lifetime. In 2025 alone, it is estimated that 313,780 men in the US will learn they have prostate cancer and 35,770 will die from it.

Since 2014, that rate has only been increasing. And some prostate cancers continue to stymie standard treatments.

"Traditionally, patients who present with metastatic prostate cancer have a very short life expectancy," says Dr. Robert Carey, a board-certified urologic oncology surgeon specializing in the treatment of prostate cancer. "And, in that time, they will often experience severe symptoms, such as bleeding, pain and obstruction."

But in recent years, a new targeted therapy called Pluvicto has been changing the game—and Dr. Carey has seen the results firsthand.

What is Pluvicto? How does it work?

Pluvicto is a PSMA-targeted radioligand therapy designed to seek out prostate malignancies and deliver cancer-killing radiation directly to—and from within—those cancer cells.

Here’s how it works: Dr. Carey

Around 80% of prostate cancers are made of cells with a biomarker called Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) on the cell surface. And one of Pluvicto's key components is a molecule called a PSMA-targeting ligand, meaning it seeks out cells with that PSMA biomarker and bonds with them. The second key component is a cytotoxic radionuclide called Lutetium 177, which emits alpha and beta radiation and breaks down the DNA of cancer cells.

Working together, Pluvicto becomes a targeted therapy that seeks out prostate cancer cells in the body, bonds with them, and then destroys them.

And in the battle against an advanced prostate cancer spreading through the body, that’s the kind of treatment oncologists have been dreaming of for decades.

How is Pluvicto administered? Is it effective?

Pluvicto is administered via a series of injections to the patient's arm, each of which can be easily conducted in an outpatient setting. PET scans in between these treatments let the doctor know how the therapy is progressing.

Side effects are frequently minimal, including dry mouth, fatigue, nausea, and loss of appetite. Dr. Carey has even seen patients continue working full-time through their treatment, taking only a day or two off for each session. He's also seen Pluvicto eliminate a patient's tumor in half the expected time.

(The patient still received one more round of treatment to combat any micro metastatic disease that may have been hiding. "With cancer," Dr. Carey explains, "we remain optimistic and vigilant at the same time.")

Today, the patient remains cancer-free and Dr. Carey is looking at a brighter future for his other patients too.

"These treatments give us options where we did not have options before," he says. "It gives patients with advanced disease decades instead of years."

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