Robert E. Reiter, MD, MBA

E. David Crawford, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Grand Rounds in Urology, interviews Robert E. Reiter, MD, Bing Professor of Urology and Molecular Biology, Director of the Prostate Cancer Program, and Director of Urologic Research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, on yesterday’s FDA approval of PSMA PET gallium scans for use in prostate cancer patients at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Reiter, one of the investigators on the study that led to this, discusses how the approval, which was a joint effort between teams at UCLA and UCSF, is the first approval of a PSMA targeting agent in the United States, and will give new, potentially more effective options for urologists to stage prostate cancer for both newly-diagnosed and recurrent disease, leading to earlier detection of both metastatic disease and sites of recurrence, as well as improved overall management of the disease. They also discuss costs and potential insurance coverage at the currently-approved UCLA/UCSF sites and beyond, next steps for broader approval, and the implications of using PSMA PET in a theranostics approach to diagnosis and treatment of mCRPC and oligometastatic prostate cancer, as well as other disease states.