For the first time in the UK, patients have been scanned in the King’s College London & Guy’s and St Thomas’ PET Centre using F18-DCFPyl, a new Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) PET tracer for the detection of prostate cancer.
In recent years, PSMA PET has become the primary modality for staging high-risk prostate cancer or detecting disease recurrence. This has been made possible by the introduction of specific tracers based on PSMA’s such as Ga68-PSMA. Ga68-PSMA can only be produced in small batches and requires complex logistics for production. There is also competition for the manufacture with other 68Ga-based tracers, creating a possible conflict of demand in particularly busy periods. The tracer, F18-DCFPyl has recently become available in London and has shown to be a valid alternative prostate cancer tracer with a strong evidence base.
The KCL & GSTT PET Centre is a referral centre in the UK for this specific application, thanks to the availability of PSMA tracers through GSTT radiopharmacy and the close collaboration with prostate cancer uro-oncology and surgical teams. KCL & GSTT are planning to work on a technology transfer in collaboration with Industry, enabling internal production of F18-DCFPyl in the Positron Emitting Radiopharmecutical Laboratory (PERL) at St Thomas’. This will guarantee a greater availability of the tracer, allowing expansion of the prostate cancer PET service.