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Poison or Primer?

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Companion Explainer · Immuno-Oncology Basics How Chemotherapy Talks to the Immune System Informed Prostate Cancer Support Group (IPCSG) Newsletter · Background piece for members BLUF — Bottom Line Up Front Chemotherapy is cytotoxic — it is, in plain terms, a controlled poison. So it seems backwards that modern regimens increasingly pair it with immune therapies that depend on a healthy immune system. The resolution is that a cytotoxic drug, given at the right dose and the right time, can help an immune attack in three ways: it clears away the cells that suppress immunity, it makes cancer cells easier for immune cells to recognize, and (for some drugs) it opens biological "space" for therapeutic immune cells to expand. The same drug can also interfere — if the dose is too high or badly timed, it wipes out the very immune cells you are counting on. The whole game is dose and sequence, not poison versus medicine. The apparent contradiction For decades, che...
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Priming the “Immune Desert”: Can Pluvicto Make CAR T Cells Work in Prostate Cancer?

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Radioligand therapy in combination with CAR T cells overcomes the heterogeneous immunosuppressive prostate tumor microenvironment | bioRxiv Informed Prostate Cancer Support Group (IPCSG) Newsletter · Research summary prepared for members BLUF — Bottom Line Up Front A new laboratory study from the City of Hope / USC / UCLA group led by Saul Priceman, PhD, reports that giving PSMA-targeted radioligand therapy (RLT) — the same class of drug as FDA-approved Pluvicto ( 177 Lu-PSMA-617) — before infusing PSCA-CAR T cells markedly improved tumor control and survival in mouse models of prostate cancer, well beyond either treatment alone. The RLT appears to act as an “immune primer,” reshaping the hostile tumor environment so the engineered T cells can do their job, while a second radiation target (PSCA vs. PSMA) helps cover tumors that shed one antigen. An alpha-emitting cousin, actinium-225 ( 225 Ac-PSMA-617) , showed similar benefit at much lower doses. Important: This is a...
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Pasritamig: Teaching Your Own T Cells to Find Prostate Cancer

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Study Details | NCT07225946 | A Study of Pasritamig With Docetaxel Versus Docetaxel in Participants With Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer | ClinicalTrials.gov Research Watch · Immunotherapy Informed Prostate Cancer Support Group — Newsletter Volume update: July 2026 A first-in-class bispecific antibody homes in on a prostate-specific "beacon" called KLK2 — and after skipping Phase 2, it is now in two Phase 3 trials. Prepared for IPCSG members · Compiled from peer-reviewed abstracts, company releases, and trial registrations current to July 2026 BLUF — Bottom Line Up Front Pasritamig (JNJ-78278343) is an experimental immunotherapy that grabs a T cell with one hand and a prostate-cancer cell with the other, forcing the immune system to attack. In its first human trial it was unusually gentle — cytokine release syndrome stayed mild and infrequent, no tocilizumab rescue was needed, and it can be...
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Whack-a-Mole - by Brenna Humphreys - Q.O.L.

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Whack-a-Mole - by Brenna Humphreys - Q.O.L. Informed Prostate Cancer Support Group  ·  Newsletter Patient Advocacy & Research Translation | Recurrence & Advanced Disease Series Understanding Recurrence Whack-a-Mole: Why Prostate Cancer Comes Back — and the New Science of Hitting It Back A rising PSA after "successful" treatment is one of the most disorienting moments in the prostate cancer journey. Here is what recurrence actually means, why the moles keep popping up, and how the evidence for chasing them down has matured through 2026. By [Author] , IPCSG  ·  Reviewed for the membership  ·  Not medical advice — see disclaimer Bottom Line Up Front Between roughly one in five and two in five men treated for localized prostate cancer will eventually see their PSA climb again — a "biochemical recurrence" (BCR) that usually shows up years before anything is visible on a scan. This is the source of the whac...
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From Trial to Treatment: Targeted Radionuclide Therapy Comes of Age in mCRPC

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From Trial to Treatment: Integrating Targeted Radionuclide Therapy Data Into Evidence-Based mCRPC Care - Integrating_Targeted_Radionuclide_Therapy_Data_Into_Evidence-Based_mCRPC_Care A patient-advocate briefing on the evidence, the fine print, and what's still unsettled — IPCSG Newsletter BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front):   Two PSMA-targeted radioligand therapies are now FDA-approved for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) — lutetium-177 vipivotide tetraxetan (Pluvicto), approved post-taxane in 2022 and expanded to pre-taxane use in March 2025 — alongside radium-223 (Xofigo), approved in 2013 for symptomatic bone-only disease. New Phase 3 data (PSMAddition) now show a benefit when Pluvicto is added even earlier, in hormone-sensitive disease, and Novartis has filed for that expanded use with decisions expected in the second half of 2026. Not every radioligand candidate is panning out, however: Lantheus disclosed in 2026 SEC filings that it will not file...
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