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UCLA celebrates first anniversary of outpatient theranostics center

by Gus Iversen, Editor in Chief | January 22, 2025
Molecular Imaging
UCLA Health is marking one year since the opening of its Outpatient Theranostics Center, a 3,000-square-foot facility in Westwood focused on treating advanced prostate, thyroid, and neuroendocrine cancers.

“The field of theranostics is booming,” said Dr. Jeremie Calais, director of the Ahmanson Translational Theranostics Division’s clinical research program. “There has been a massive amount of investment from pharmaceutical companies in the past five years, and that translates to many new clinical trials here at UCLA.”

UCLA has played a key role in advancing theranostic therapies, including participating in early trials of lutetium-177 vipivotide tetraxetan (Pluvicto), a radiopharmaceutical now FDA-approved for metastatic prostate cancer resistant to other treatments.

According to Dr. Johannes Czernin, chief of the Ahmanson Translational Imaging Division, “Ten to 15 percent of patients with very aggressive disease have an almost complete response to this therapy.”

At the center, up to 16 patients are treated daily with Pluvicto and other radiopharmaceuticals. Clinical trials remain a cornerstone of the program, supported by a team of 20 staff members and more than a dozen active studies.

UCLA’s contributions to theranostics date back to the mid-2010s when the Ahmanson Translational Theranostics Division was launched. German researchers who joined UCLA from Europe, where the field was already gaining traction, helped develop prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) PET imaging.

Between 2016 and 2021, UCLA and UCSF collaborated on a major clinical trial of PSMA PET involving approximately 4,000 patients. The findings led to FDA approval of the diagnostic test in 2020, which has since become a widely used tool in prostate cancer care.

Building on this progress, UCLA also participated in the VISION trial, a phase II study of lutetium-177 PSMA therapy, which was later approved by the FDA in 2022.

The Ahmanson Translational Theranostics Division has since been named a Comprehensive Radiopharmaceutical Therapy Center of Excellence by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI).

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