Israel based Alpha Tau Medical Ltd., the developer of the innovative alpha-radiation cancer therapy Alpha DaRT, announced recently that the first patient was treated in a feasibility study evaluating the Alpha DaRT as a neoadjuvant therapy in patients with prostate cancer at the Rambam Health Care Center in Haifa, Israel.
The primary objectives of this study are to assess the feasibility and safety of intratumoral Alpha DaRT source implantation for the treatment of local prostate cancer prior to surgery. Secondary objectives include assessing radiological and pathological objective response rate of the tumor, and changes in quality of life measures. The study involves two separate procedures, with surgical resection of the prostate 50 days following Alpha DaRT source insertion, and can recruit up to 10 patients. The surgical resection will be performed at the Carmel Medical Center in Haifa, Israel using a da Vinci surgical robot, and will be led by Dr. Yuval Freifeld and his senior team.
“This is a historic day for Alpha Tau,” said Alpha Tau CEO Uzi Sofer. “After gaining a wealth of experience in treating superficial cancers such as those of the skin, head & neck, and breast, we are thrilled to have treated the first prostate patient, our first internal organ treatment. Our pre-clinical data show that the Alpha DaRT technology may have potential to address a very broad range of solid tumor types, and our strategy is to expand our clinical studies across multiple tumor types in order to evaluate the full potential of the Alpha DaRT. This study suggests our ability to deliver this promising treatment beyond superficial tumors and is an important milestone in executing on this strategy.”
Alpha Tau CMO Dr. Robert Den remarked, “Since the prostate is surgically removed 50 days after the Alpha DaRT insertion, the neoadjuvant design of this trial will allow us to analyze the pathological response of tissues to the Alpha DaRT. This will hopefully provide very valuable information to our researchers and allow us to compare theoretical versus actual cell damage.”
Dr. Tomer Charas, head of the GU Radiotherapy Unit in the Oncology Division at Rambam Health Care Center in Haifa, Israel, and principal investigator of the study, commented, “We are excited to be leading this trial in collaboration with the Carmel Urology team, and to be the first to evaluate Alpha DaRT in prostate cancer in patients. Based on the results from preclinical studies, it is possible that neoadjuvant treatment with the Alpha DaRT may also trigger an immune response, which could help decrease the risk of tumor recurrence. In addition, a preferable safety profile has been observed to date in treatments of other tumor types.”
