GONZALES, La. (BRPROUD) — You can now buy a new drug for advanced prostate cancer.
The Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center is using the treatment and accepting new patients. New leading-edge therapy for advanced prostate cancer patients is being utilized by this center in Gonzales.
“We are one of the first centers to be able to get this, especially regionally, certainly in the Baton Rouge area, we are happy to offer this, there were some supply chain issues for this medication, but recently we got these cleared up and we are finally able to start our program,” said Dr. Konstantin Kovtun, radiation oncologist at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center.
PLUVICTO consists of an injection every six weeks.
“It goes directly to the prostate cancer cells through the blood and kills them. Not only does it hurt the cancer and cause the images to look better but patients actually live longer and do better,” said Kovtun.
This helps the doctor target cancer cells with even more precision than before while leaving healthy cells intact.
“It’s a game changer because it allows us to personalize the treatment for prostate cancer,” said Kovtun.
Another game changer? Patients may be able to live longer. But to be eligible, you must meet a list of criteria.
“In general the men that would benefit from this are men that have prostate cancer that has spread outside of the prostate to other parts of the body and most men that are going to be eligible have received some kind of treatment before for their metastatic prostate cancer,” said Kovtun.
This center just started using the drug a few weeks ago. The treatment is one of many therapies offered at the Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center.
