Informed Prostate Cancer Patient Support

IPCSG Newsletter · Research on the Horizon The JANX014 Trial A "double-masked" T-cell engager for advanced prostate cancer has entered its first human study — developed by a San Diego company and being tested close to home. Prepared for the Informed Prostate Cancer Support Group · September 2026 Bottom Line Up Front JANX014 is an experimental prostate-cancer immunotherapy now in its earliest stage of human testing (Phase 1) for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) . It is a "double-masked" T-cell engager — a drug engineered to stay switched off in the bloodstream and turn on only after it reaches the tumor, an approach meant to widen the safety margin and reduce the immune-overactivation reaction (cytokine release syndrome) that has limited earlier drugs of this type. It is made by San Diego–based Janux Therapeutics , and the study is recruiting at six U.S. centers — the first of which is UC San Diego's Moore...

Scientists find a new weakness in treatment-resistant prostate cancer | ScienceDaily IPCSG  Informed Prostate Cancer Support Group Research Update - Treatment Resistance · Precision Medicine A New Drug-Pairing Strategy for Treatment-Resistant Prostate Cancer When prostate cancer changes its identity to dodge hormone therapy, one drug may not be enough. A University of Michigan team makes the case for hitting the disguise from both directions at once. Prepared for the IPCSG Newsletter  •  September 2026 Bottom Line Up Front Some advanced prostate cancers escape hormone-blocking drugs by physically changing what kind of cell they are — a process called transdifferentiation or lineage plasticity . Researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center report that this escape has two moving parts, and that pairing two classes of “epigenetic” drugs — a BET bromodomain inhibitor and a DNMT inhibitor — blocked both parts and slowed tumo...

Differential Radiobiological Effects of Αlpha- and Beta-Minus-Emitter Targeted Radionuclide Therapy: DNA Damage and Survival - International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics How to Make It Work at Lower Doses An IPCSG Newsletter feature on the radiobiology behind Pluvicto, Actinium-225, and the next wave of radioligand therapy. The author is a participant in a current Actinium 225 trial at UCSD Health Moores Cancer Center after having failed on Pluvicto. Bottom Line Up Front Targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT) — the class of treatment that includes the FDA-approved drug Pluvicto — delivers radiation directly to prostate cancer cells by riding on a molecule that locks onto PSMA , a protein studded on the surface of most prostate tumors. Two "payload" radioisotopes dominate the field: lutetium-177 (a beta-minus emitter, already approved) and actinium-225 (an alpha emitter, still investigational). A newly reported laboratory study from the German Cancer ...

The Clues Hidden in Failed Prostate Cancer Trials IPCSG Newsletter  •  Treatment Advances What the “Failures” Are Finally Teaching Us A patient-friendly review of the science — Summer 2026 BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front):    For fifteen years, the checkpoint-inhibitor drugs that revolutionized melanoma, lung, and kidney cancer failed one prostate-cancer trial after another — six large Phase 3 studies came back negative. But hidden inside those “failures” was a small group of men who had dramatic, lasting remissions. By studying those rare responders one cell at a time, researchers have now identified why most prostate tumors resist immunotherapy (immune-suppressing “SPP1” macrophages) and what lets a few tumors melt away (unusual killer T-cell populations). Today, only men whose tumors carry specific genetic signatures — mismatch-repair deficiency (dMMR), high microsatellite instability (MSI-H), or high tumor mutational burden (TMB) — have an FD...