Providence Alaska Medical Center has become the first treatment center in the state to offer Lutathera, a targeted radioactive therapy used to treat certain rare cancers that develop in the pancreas, stomach, intestines, and other parts of the digestive system.
The treatment is approved for adults and patients 12 and older with somatostatin receptor-positive gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, or GEP-NETs. Those tumors contain specific proteins that allow Lutathera to identify and target cancer cells.
“Lutathera is a new, advanced medication that targets cancer cells at the molecular level,” Providence radiation oncologist Stephen Settle said. “This medication targets radiation specifically to cancer cells, leaving healthy normal cells intact. Think of it like a key that only fits the lock of the cancer cells and goes anywhere in the body to go after them.”…