It’s called radiopharmaceutical therapy, or theranostics; a type of liquid radiation that attacks recurrent or resistant small cell lung cancer, sarcoma, and malignant melanoma.
“What it does is it’s able to circulate throughout the bloodstream and specifically target and bind to unique proteins that are expressed or overexpressed on cancer cells.”
Dr. Brandon Mancini is the medical director at BAMF Health in Grand Rapids.
“And this is incredibly unique and special because your body then filters out the excess medication very quickly, primarily through the kidneys, and then the person is left with very little side effects as a result of these radiopharmaceutical therapies because of how specific and targeted the medicine is.”
Dr. Mancini says that medicine penetrates the cancer cells, delivering low-dose radiation from the inside out 24-hours a day, 7 days a week for 6 to 8 weeks.
Compared to standard chemotherapy, this targeted therapy is intended to decrease patient side effects and number of treatments.
“This unique clinical trial opportunity allows us to incorporate patients aged 16 years or older, so it’s one of the first trials uniquely in this type of disease setting to be able to assist adolescents.”
Mancini says partnering with Corewell Health will extend access to this specialized care and put Grand Rapids on the map as the destination for advanced cancer treatment and research.
I’m David Limbaugh.