Lantheus Selects GenesisCare to Administer First Commercial dose of PYLARIFY®, the first and only FDA-Approved PSMA PET Imaging Agent for Men with Prostate Cancer
First Florida Prostate Cancer Patient to Receive New Imaging Agent at Boca Raton GenesisCare – Further Elevating Patient Access to High-Quality Care
Boca Raton, Florida, June 3, 2021 – GenesisCare—one of the leading oncology providers in the United States, Australia, Spain, and the United Kingdom—today announced it will administer the first commercially available dose of Lantheus’ new prostate cancer imaging agent, PYLARIFY (piflufolastat F 18) Injection. As a fluorinated PSMA-targeted PET imaging agent, PYLARIFY helps determine and monitor the presence or absence of recurrent and/or metastatic prostate cancer (cancer that has spread throughout the body). *With more than 3.1 million men living with prostate cancer, it is the second leading cancer-related cause of death for men and there is an urgent need to find better ways to diagnose, monitor and cure this disease.
“We continue to strive to deliver exceptional cancer treatments that offer the best possible life outcomes. This innovative new imaging agent will help us deliver meaningful prostate cancer treatment options that may significantly improve patient’s lives,” said Dan Collins, Founder and CEO, GenesisCare. “Being selected by Lantheus to partner to administer the first dose of PYLARIFY is an honor, and it’s humbling to know that GenesisCare will be potentially helping men with prostate cancer, while improving access to high-quality care for our patients.”
Prostate cancer is a common and usually slow-growing cancer. Over 60% of men 65+ years are eventually diagnosed with prostate cancer.[Source: American Cancer Society, Key Statistics for Prostate Cancer] Until now, testing for metastatic prostate cancer has been limited and healthcare providers have had to rely on PSA blood tests and less sensitive imaging tests, such as bone scan and CT.
“When a prostate cancer patient has a rising PSA blood test after initial therapy, whether it is post-surgery or post-radiotherapy, we find that conventional imaging studies are often inadequate in identifying early stages of disease recurrence with any high degree of reliability or accuracy,” said Dr. Kishore K. Dass, Radiation Oncologist, GenesisCare. “PSMA PET imaging allows clinicians to detect areas of early prostate cancer recurrences and thereby allows us to properly target the exact areas of tumor recurrences. The positive predictive value of PYLARIFY PET imaging over conventional imaging in men with high-risk prostate cancer will revolutionize the management of this disease while improving patient outcomes.”
“Innovations such as PYLARIFY will expand our capability to care for men with prostate cancer,” said Wally Curran, MD, GenesisCare Global Chief Medical Officer. “From diagnosis, active surveillance, surgery, radiation therapy, and more – GenesisCare physicians will consider those innovative approaches that are tailored to meeting each patients’ individual needs. We support breakthrough advances in diagnostics and therapeutics and adding PYLARIFY into our available options is a natural fit.”
Upon administering this first dose in Boca Raton, GenesisCare plans to continue
to add the agent to a number of centers across the U.S.
“Nuclear medicine, including PYLARIFY PET imaging, is now a pivotal medical specialty that can transform patients by optimizing treatment selection,” said Dr. Neal D. Shore, U.S. Chief Medical Officer of Surgery and Urology, GenesisCare. “The approval by the FDA for public use of this PET PSMA imaging agent provides critical accessibility which will improve prostate cancer patient management nationwide.”
As a leading provider of oncology services globally, GenesisCare strives to ensure the best possible life outcomes for its patients by bringing integrated cancer care, research and medical technology together for each individual. With its origins in radiation oncology, GenesisCare has, in recent years, expanded its services to include medical oncology, urology and surgery, and nuclear medicine, a rapidly developing field of oncology care.
For more information on GenesisCare, visit genesiscare.com/us (formerly 21st Century Oncology). To view the complete list of precautions GenesisCare U.S. centers are taking to ensure patient and staff safety, visit https://www.genesiscare.com/us/covid-19/.
*Source: American Cancer Society, Key Statistics for Prostate Cancer
