New radiopharmaceuticals based on prostate-specific inhibitors of membrane antigen for diagnostics and therapy of metastatic prostate cancer

Abstract

About 10.7% cases of prostate cancer were registered in Russia in 2011 (40 000 patients). More than half of cancer cases were revealed in advanced (III-IV) stages when metastases inevitably developed quickly. Clinical problem of early diagnostics and treatment of metastatic prostate cancer is still not solved. Anatomical imaging techniques have low sensitivity and specificity for the detection of this disease. Metabolic visualization methods which use prostate specific antigen (PSA) as a marker are also ineffective. This article describes prostate-specific membrane antigens (PSMA) that are proposed as a marker for diagnostics and therapy of prostate cancer. The most promising PSMA-based radiopharmaceutical agent for diagnostics has been developed and clinically tested in the European countries. These pharmaceuticals are based on small peptide molecules modified with urea, and have the highest affinity to PSMA. Favorable pharmacokinetics, rapid accumulation in the tumor and rapid excretion from the body are beneficial features of these pharmaceuticals.