PSMA PET and Radioligand Therapy: A Comprehensive Two-Day Conference by UCLA and UCSF - Jeremie Calais & Thomas Hope
October 11, 2023
Zach Klaassen hosts a discussion with Thomas Hope Jeremie Calais about a conference co-hosted by UCLA and UCSF, focusing on PSMA PET imaging and radioligand therapy. Scheduled for January 18th and 19th, 2024, at UCSF, the conference aims to educate healthcare professionals on interpreting PSMA PET results and managing patients effectively. The target audience includes both academic and private practice professionals dealing with PSMA PET scans or considering PSMA-targeted therapy. The conference will feature a lineup of world-renowned speakers, including experts from Germany and Australia, as well as American medical oncologists. A significant portion of the conference will be dedicated to tumor board discussions, aiming to provide practical insights into patient management.
Biographies:
Jeremie Calais, MD, MSc, Associate Professor, Nuclear Medicine and Theranostics, Director, Clinical Research Program of the Ahmanson Translational Theranostics Division, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Thomas Hope, MD, Vice Chair of Clinical Operations and Strategy, Department of Radiology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Zachary Klaassen, MD, MSc, Urologic Oncologist, Assistant Professor Surgery/Urology at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, Georgia Cancer Center, Augusta, GA
Biographies:
Jeremie Calais, MD, MSc, Associate Professor, Nuclear Medicine and Theranostics, Director, Clinical Research Program of the Ahmanson Translational Theranostics Division, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Thomas Hope, MD, Vice Chair of Clinical Operations and Strategy, Department of Radiology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Zachary Klaassen, MD, MSc, Urologic Oncologist, Assistant Professor Surgery/Urology at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, Georgia Cancer Center, Augusta, GA
Related Content:
Learn More
Key Takeaways from the UCLA/UCSF PSMA Conference - Jeremie Calais
View Written Conference Articles from the 2024 UCSF-UCLA PSMA Conference
View More Video Presentations from the 2024 UCSF-UCLA PSMA Conference
Navigating Salvage Radiotherapy with Insights from PSMA PET - Jeremie Calais
Incorporating radioligand therapy in clinical practice in the United States for patients with prostate cancer.
A VISION Substudy of Reader Agreement on 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT Scan Interpretation to Determine Patient Eligibility for 177Lu-PSMA-617 Radioligand Therapy - Beyond the Abstract
Learn More
Key Takeaways from the UCLA/UCSF PSMA Conference - Jeremie Calais
View Written Conference Articles from the 2024 UCSF-UCLA PSMA Conference
View More Video Presentations from the 2024 UCSF-UCLA PSMA Conference
Navigating Salvage Radiotherapy with Insights from PSMA PET - Jeremie Calais
Incorporating radioligand therapy in clinical practice in the United States for patients with prostate cancer.
A VISION Substudy of Reader Agreement on 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT Scan Interpretation to Determine Patient Eligibility for 177Lu-PSMA-617 Radioligand Therapy - Beyond the Abstract
Read the Full Video Transcript
Zach Klaassen: My name is Dr. Zach Klaassen. I'm a Urological Oncologist in Augusta, Georgia at the Georgia Cancer Center. I'm pleased to be joined for this UroToday, discussion with Dr. Thomas Hope from UCSF and Dr. Jeremie Calais from UCLA. Today, we're going to be discussing their upcoming conference, co-hosted by UCLA and UCSF, looking at PSMA PET as well as radioligand therapy. Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us today.
Thomas Hope: Thank you for having us.
Jeremie Calais: Pleasure to be here, as always.
Zach Klaassen: Let's start just from the top. When is this meeting, where is it, and Dr. Calais, where can we expect to be able to register for this meeting?
Jeremie Calais: The meeting will be held look here in January 2024. I think it'll be on the 18th and 19th of January, to be precise. It'll be at UCSF. It's an in-person meeting, although you will have the possibility to stream virtually the content and attend the sessions virtually, but all the talks will be given in person at the UCSF Conference Center.
Zach Klaassen: Excellent. Dr. Hope, how did this come to be about? I looked at this program, it's a fantastic 2-day event, with lots of big speakers. What was the genesis behind pulling all these people together for this event?
Thomas Hope: Yeah, the event, it's a 2-day affair. So the first day is primarily focused on PSMA PET, the imaging side, and the second day is focused on PSMA radioligand therapy, the therapy side. All of us in the community who handle these patients and manage them know that there's a big unmet need out there, both in interpreting PSMA PETs, understanding the results of it, but also how to use that information to manage patients properly, and particularly in the community. There's a need for education on that.
On the radioligand therapy side, I think the same thing is true. We know this drug's available, we know that it works, it has efficacy, but we don't really understand well in the community who should be getting it, when it should be used, what the toxicities are, how you manage patients, especially during therapy? I think that's the hardest aspect of this. And when patients develop toxicities and responses and progression, how do we actually address that day to day? I think this conference is trying to provide some information to people who are managing these patients with these new tools who probably aren't yet fully comfortable with how to do that.
Zach Klaassen: That's great. Would you say the target audience is academic folks, private practice, a little bit of both? Hopefully everybody. What's your target in terms of who should come and in what disciplines? Dr. Calais, what are your thoughts on who should be attending?
Jeremie Calais: I think it's a bit of both. It's both academic and in any setting. Basically anyone that is dealing with patients who have a PSMA PET scan or maybe considering doing a PSMA-targeted therapy.
Zach Klaassen: Right.
Jeremie Calais: There are many things to be learned. We are fortunate to have collaborated on various PSMA-related research projects since 2016, so it's been now more than 7 years we are doing PSMA PET imaging, and PSMA-targeted therapy for maybe 6 or 5 years. We will have our own UCLA and UCSF faculties that are quite experienced with PSMA-targeted approaches to share their experience, and give talks. The main lineup will be UCLA and UCSF speakers, and we'll also have some international, well-renowned guest speakers experts in the PSMA-targeted theranostics field.
Zach Klaassen: Yeah, absolutely. I looked at the program and the speaker lineup is really, as you said, world-renowned. Dr. Hope, could you maybe just highlight some of the people who will be there? This is certainly a who's who in the field for sure.
Thomas Hope: Yeah, it's sort of the standard affair. We've got the Germans, Wolfgang Fendler, Matthias Eiber who've been collaborating with us for years, really foundational people in the PSMA PET world, as well as Australians with Louise Emmett, who's just amazing, really. With ENZA-p coming out, hopefully she'll be able to have some up-to-date information with the results of that may be being presented at ESMO in the near future, we hope. Then we have the American medical oncologists, Michael Morris, Oliver Sartor, who've just been instrumental in designing and implementing the clinical trials that have led to the approval of these drugs. So really sort of bringing together all the big groups that have really helped us develop this field moving forward, as well as, obviously, the UCSF and UCLA faculty who've been so supportive of both of us through this process.
Zach Klaassen: Absolutely. I can assume in 2025 we'll be down in LA for the second event. Is that sort of the plan to kind of go back and forth?
Jeremie Calais: That's the plan.
Zach Klaassen: Perfect, perfect. In terms of key takeaways, you kind of mentioned off the top, Dr. Hope, about bringing together people and there's the wild, wild west out there. I'll ask Dr. Calais, what's sort of the key takeaways you hope that people can get out of this 2-day conference?
Jeremie Calais: First of all, I think they will get to meet all these PSMA experts in person, and you can have many case-by-case discussions. That's, I would say, the first main point, is to bring these PSMA-targeted expert community together, available there so that you can ask many questions. And then you have many small talks from all these experts and faculty addressing all the aspects of PSMA PET imaging and PSMA-targeted therapy. It goes from, for whom we should do it, how we should do it, what are the main pitfalls, what we should avoid, what will be the future, and how to implement it if you're just starting a new program at your site. Very practical questions, but also some opening research questions. We have Johannes Czernin, who, basically, was the foundation of the PSMA program at UCLA. He's heavily involved in research of clinical/preclinical discoveries, so we will also get some insight into what may be the future in that space as well.
Zach Klaassen: That's great. I was going to ask that. So it's going to bring everybody up to date on the data and obviously the trials from both an imaging and a treatment standpoint, but it sounds like there'll be a little bit on what we're going to expect over the next 3 to 5 years or so as well.
Jeremie Calais: Yes.
Zach Klaassen: Outstanding. Gentlemen, anything else for our listeners just in terms of looking forward to this meeting over the next couple of months?
Thomas Hope: I think the only thing I would add to what Jeremie said is that there are two aspects. The other aspect of this conference that's really going to be really central and valuable is the tumor boards.
Zach Klaassen: Yes.
Thomas Hope: About a quarter of the conference is going to be tumor board discussions, which I actually think is where a lot of the value is for the people who will attend. It's really when you get to the case discussion and these dilemmas you run into where you start to think about aspects like, Oh, what would I do here?" And to hear people who've been struggling with these choices over the last number of years is where you're going to learn a lot. So I add that.
And then the second aspect of it is in terms of the attendees, I think obviously Nuclear Medicine radiologists, that's us, but it's not just Medical Oncologists, it's also radiation oncologists, urologists who would, hopefully, attend and learn. Because I think it's this group of communities, different types of communities working together to care for these patients. We have speakers from all those specialties, obviously, but attendees also need to learn how to use this across the spectrum of medical professions.
Zach Klaassen: Yeah, there's no question. This is as multidisciplinary as it gets, for sure. Obviously we're preaching to the choir, but I think that's a great take-home point too. A couple of housekeeping things. You can register at psmaconference.ucsf.edu. Again, to highlight January 18th and 19th, 2024 in San Francisco. This will be a co-sponsored event from the Prostate Cancer Foundation as well as UroToday. Gentlemen, we're looking forward to it. Thanks so much for your time today, and we look forward to the meeting in a couple of months.
Thomas Hope: Awesome. Thank you.
Jeremie Calais: Yeah, thank you. You'll be there, Zach, right?
Zach Klaassen: Sounds good. I'll be there.
Jeremie Calais: I'll see you there. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
Zach Klaassen: My name is Dr. Zach Klaassen. I'm a Urological Oncologist in Augusta, Georgia at the Georgia Cancer Center. I'm pleased to be joined for this UroToday, discussion with Dr. Thomas Hope from UCSF and Dr. Jeremie Calais from UCLA. Today, we're going to be discussing their upcoming conference, co-hosted by UCLA and UCSF, looking at PSMA PET as well as radioligand therapy. Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us today.
Thomas Hope: Thank you for having us.
Jeremie Calais: Pleasure to be here, as always.
Zach Klaassen: Let's start just from the top. When is this meeting, where is it, and Dr. Calais, where can we expect to be able to register for this meeting?
Jeremie Calais: The meeting will be held look here in January 2024. I think it'll be on the 18th and 19th of January, to be precise. It'll be at UCSF. It's an in-person meeting, although you will have the possibility to stream virtually the content and attend the sessions virtually, but all the talks will be given in person at the UCSF Conference Center.
Zach Klaassen: Excellent. Dr. Hope, how did this come to be about? I looked at this program, it's a fantastic 2-day event, with lots of big speakers. What was the genesis behind pulling all these people together for this event?
Thomas Hope: Yeah, the event, it's a 2-day affair. So the first day is primarily focused on PSMA PET, the imaging side, and the second day is focused on PSMA radioligand therapy, the therapy side. All of us in the community who handle these patients and manage them know that there's a big unmet need out there, both in interpreting PSMA PETs, understanding the results of it, but also how to use that information to manage patients properly, and particularly in the community. There's a need for education on that.
On the radioligand therapy side, I think the same thing is true. We know this drug's available, we know that it works, it has efficacy, but we don't really understand well in the community who should be getting it, when it should be used, what the toxicities are, how you manage patients, especially during therapy? I think that's the hardest aspect of this. And when patients develop toxicities and responses and progression, how do we actually address that day to day? I think this conference is trying to provide some information to people who are managing these patients with these new tools who probably aren't yet fully comfortable with how to do that.
Zach Klaassen: That's great. Would you say the target audience is academic folks, private practice, a little bit of both? Hopefully everybody. What's your target in terms of who should come and in what disciplines? Dr. Calais, what are your thoughts on who should be attending?
Jeremie Calais: I think it's a bit of both. It's both academic and in any setting. Basically anyone that is dealing with patients who have a PSMA PET scan or maybe considering doing a PSMA-targeted therapy.
Zach Klaassen: Right.
Jeremie Calais: There are many things to be learned. We are fortunate to have collaborated on various PSMA-related research projects since 2016, so it's been now more than 7 years we are doing PSMA PET imaging, and PSMA-targeted therapy for maybe 6 or 5 years. We will have our own UCLA and UCSF faculties that are quite experienced with PSMA-targeted approaches to share their experience, and give talks. The main lineup will be UCLA and UCSF speakers, and we'll also have some international, well-renowned guest speakers experts in the PSMA-targeted theranostics field.
Zach Klaassen: Yeah, absolutely. I looked at the program and the speaker lineup is really, as you said, world-renowned. Dr. Hope, could you maybe just highlight some of the people who will be there? This is certainly a who's who in the field for sure.
Thomas Hope: Yeah, it's sort of the standard affair. We've got the Germans, Wolfgang Fendler, Matthias Eiber who've been collaborating with us for years, really foundational people in the PSMA PET world, as well as Australians with Louise Emmett, who's just amazing, really. With ENZA-p coming out, hopefully she'll be able to have some up-to-date information with the results of that may be being presented at ESMO in the near future, we hope. Then we have the American medical oncologists, Michael Morris, Oliver Sartor, who've just been instrumental in designing and implementing the clinical trials that have led to the approval of these drugs. So really sort of bringing together all the big groups that have really helped us develop this field moving forward, as well as, obviously, the UCSF and UCLA faculty who've been so supportive of both of us through this process.
Zach Klaassen: Absolutely. I can assume in 2025 we'll be down in LA for the second event. Is that sort of the plan to kind of go back and forth?
Jeremie Calais: That's the plan.
Zach Klaassen: Perfect, perfect. In terms of key takeaways, you kind of mentioned off the top, Dr. Hope, about bringing together people and there's the wild, wild west out there. I'll ask Dr. Calais, what's sort of the key takeaways you hope that people can get out of this 2-day conference?
Jeremie Calais: First of all, I think they will get to meet all these PSMA experts in person, and you can have many case-by-case discussions. That's, I would say, the first main point, is to bring these PSMA-targeted expert community together, available there so that you can ask many questions. And then you have many small talks from all these experts and faculty addressing all the aspects of PSMA PET imaging and PSMA-targeted therapy. It goes from, for whom we should do it, how we should do it, what are the main pitfalls, what we should avoid, what will be the future, and how to implement it if you're just starting a new program at your site. Very practical questions, but also some opening research questions. We have Johannes Czernin, who, basically, was the foundation of the PSMA program at UCLA. He's heavily involved in research of clinical/preclinical discoveries, so we will also get some insight into what may be the future in that space as well.
Zach Klaassen: That's great. I was going to ask that. So it's going to bring everybody up to date on the data and obviously the trials from both an imaging and a treatment standpoint, but it sounds like there'll be a little bit on what we're going to expect over the next 3 to 5 years or so as well.
Jeremie Calais: Yes.
Zach Klaassen: Outstanding. Gentlemen, anything else for our listeners just in terms of looking forward to this meeting over the next couple of months?
Thomas Hope: I think the only thing I would add to what Jeremie said is that there are two aspects. The other aspect of this conference that's really going to be really central and valuable is the tumor boards.
Zach Klaassen: Yes.
Thomas Hope: About a quarter of the conference is going to be tumor board discussions, which I actually think is where a lot of the value is for the people who will attend. It's really when you get to the case discussion and these dilemmas you run into where you start to think about aspects like, Oh, what would I do here?" And to hear people who've been struggling with these choices over the last number of years is where you're going to learn a lot. So I add that.
And then the second aspect of it is in terms of the attendees, I think obviously Nuclear Medicine radiologists, that's us, but it's not just Medical Oncologists, it's also radiation oncologists, urologists who would, hopefully, attend and learn. Because I think it's this group of communities, different types of communities working together to care for these patients. We have speakers from all those specialties, obviously, but attendees also need to learn how to use this across the spectrum of medical professions.
Zach Klaassen: Yeah, there's no question. This is as multidisciplinary as it gets, for sure. Obviously we're preaching to the choir, but I think that's a great take-home point too. A couple of housekeeping things. You can register at psmaconference.ucsf.edu. Again, to highlight January 18th and 19th, 2024 in San Francisco. This will be a co-sponsored event from the Prostate Cancer Foundation as well as UroToday. Gentlemen, we're looking forward to it. Thanks so much for your time today, and we look forward to the meeting in a couple of months.
Thomas Hope: Awesome. Thank you.
Jeremie Calais: Yeah, thank you. You'll be there, Zach, right?
Zach Klaassen: Sounds good. I'll be there.
Jeremie Calais: I'll see you there. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.