Antibodies targeting Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen positive prostate cancer: from diagnostic imaging to theranostics

Purpose of review Targeting Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) has paved the way for personalized medicine in prostate cancer (PCa) patients. This review aims to highlight the role of PSMA targeting antibodies in PCa, for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Recent findings PSMA Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography has been a game changer in the diagnosis of PCa in the recent decade. Two anti-PSMA monoclonal antibodies have been studied in PCa: 7E11-C35 (limited use) and J591. J591 antibody was used for diagnostic purposes coupled with different radionuclides. Most importantly, it was combined to numerous therapeutic radionuclides such as Lutetium-177 (Lu), Yttrium-90 (Y), Indium-111 (In), and Actinium-225 (Ac). It was also conjugated to drugs forming antibody-drug conjugates (e.g. MLN2704 and PSMA-ADC). These compounds were tested in recent phase I/II clinical trials. Summary PSMA targeting antibodies are very promising for further clinical investigation and continue to be a momentous research area, for both imaging and therapeutic settings. Although some clinical trials resulted in unfavorably safety profiles for some antibodies, they validated PSMA as a crucial immunoconjugate target.