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Influence of Androgen Deprivation Therapy on the Uptake of PSMA-Targeted Agents: Emerging Opportunities and Challenges

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Abstract

Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is an attractive target for both diagnosis and therapy because of its high expression in the vast majority of prostate cancers. Development of small molecules for targeting PSMA is important for molecular imaging and radionuclide therapy of prostate cancer. Recent evidence implies that androgen-deprivation therapy increase PSMA-ligand uptake in some cases. The reported upregulations in PSMA-ligand uptake after exposure to second-generation antiandrogens such as enzalutamide and abiraterone might disturb PSMA-targeted imaging for staging and response monitoring of patients undergoing treatment with antiandrogen-based drugs. On the other hand, second-generation antiandrogens are emerging as potential endoradio-/chemosensitizers. Therefore, the enhancement of the therapeutic efficiency of PSMA-targeted theranostic methods can be listed as a new capability of antiandrogens. In this manuscript, we will present what is currently known about the mechanism of increasing PSMA uptake following exposure to antiandrogens. In addition, we will discuss whether these above-mentioned antiandrogens could play the role of endoradio-/chemosensitizers in combination with the well-established PSMA-targeted methods for pre-targeting of prostate cancer.

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Correspondence to Gi Jeong Cheon.

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Martin K. Bakht, So Won Oh, Hyewon Youn, Gi jeong Cheon, Cheol Kwak and Keon Wook Kang declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. The manuscript has not been published before, is not under consideration for publication anywhere else and has been approved by all co-authors.

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Bakht, M.K., Oh, S.W., Youn, H. et al. Influence of Androgen Deprivation Therapy on the Uptake of PSMA-Targeted Agents: Emerging Opportunities and Challenges. Nucl Med Mol Imaging 51, 202–211 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-016-0439-4

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