Establishing radiolabelled PSMA as a target for glioma treatment
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Dosimetry and immunohistochemistry study to establish radiolabelled PSMA as a potential theranostic target in glioma treatment
IRAS ID
306945
Contact name
Thomas Booth
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
High grade glioma is an incurable brain cancer with an average survival time of 12-18 months with a standard treatment regime consisting of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Thus, new targeted treatments are desperately needed.
One potential avenue of high grade glioma treatment involves a ‘theranostic’ radiotherapeutic approach. This consists of two stages: firstly, a 'localising' chemical is injected into the patient, which specifically recognises a particular 'molecular signature' within the tumour environment. The localising chemical provides information about the quantity and distribution of this molecular signature within the tumour. This information is then used to optimise the injected dose of a 'therapeutic' chemical, which recognises the same molecular signature but is attached to a radioactive atom that targets tumour cells for destruction. This approach enables clinicians to better calculate the amount of therapeutic drug required to produce a meaningful treatment response, balanced against the risk of side-effects.
There is growing, but limited, evidence that a protein called Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) is strongly and specifically produced in high grade glioma and may be a good choice as the molecular signature to target. In fact, PSMA has already been used extensively as a theranostic target in prostate cancer, demonstrating safety and efficacy in this condition.
This study will look to further establish the presence of PSMA within high grade glioma tumours using two approaches: firstly, by using nuclear medicine techniques to 'light up' PSMA on the background of a standard MRI scan - this is called positron emission tomography MRI (PET-MRI); secondly by assessing for the presence of PSMA in brain tumour biopsy specimens in the laboratory.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/YH/0087
Date of REC Opinion
24 May 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion