Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
18 August 2021 | Story André Damons | Photo André Damons
Dr Osayande Evbuomwan is a Senior Lecturer and medical specialist in nuclear medicine in the Department of Nuclear Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, at the University of the Free State (UFS).

The University of the Free State (UFS) Department of Nuclear Medicine has, for the first time, started using Lutetium 177 PSMA (Lu-177 PSMA) therapy for the treatment of metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (MCRPC) – an advanced stage of prostate cancer.

The UFS and the Free State province are now joining other South African universities, such as the University of Pretoria, the University of the Witwatersrand, and other provinces in using this method to treat MCRPC patients. 

Dr Osayande Evbuomwan, a Senior Lecturer and medical specialist in the Department of Nuclear Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, says they have started treating their first MCRP patient (first cycle) with peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) on 15 July. It is the first time that Lutetium 177 PSMA – a type of PRRT used for treating patients with MCRPC – has been used in the Free State. This method is used on MCRPC patients who are not eligible for chemotherapy or have failed first- or second-line chemotherapy.

Expertise and funds are now available for this treatment

Dr Evbuomwan was trained and exposed to this therapy at the University of the Witwatersrand during his registrar training in nuclear medicine. When he joined the UFS in 2019, he – with the always available help of the Head of Department, Dr Gerrit Engelbrecht – pushed for the therapy to be used in the department. 

“We in the Department of Nuclear Medicine are happy that expertise is now available and that some funds have been released for this treatment to commence. The index patient is very sick with MCRPC and was too sick to qualify for first-line chemotherapy. Each patient will need about four-six cycles for complete treatment. The patient is being treated in the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Universitas Academic Hospital and Annex.” 

“We are hoping that he will be able to complete at least four cycles and respond well to the treatment. We believe that the ability to administer this treatment now is good news for the Free State, as the people of the Free State also deserve to be exposed to this level of treatment. We are hoping that the government will continue to provide more funds for more of these patients to be treated in our facility,” says Dr Evbuomwan.

It was budgeted to treat five patients (20 cycles), with each cycle (just the Lu-177 PSMA) costing more than R50 000. 

A googled image from the internet of a case before, during, and after completing the full course of therapy. The first image is before
treatment and the last image is after completing treatment, while the images in between are during treatment.
(Source: Google) 

Prostate cancer one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality

Dr Evbuomwan says prostate cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the world, including South Africa. When it progresses to the advanced stage of MCRPC, the prognosis becomes bad. 

Dr Evbuomwan explains that there are various conventional systemic therapies, including first- and second-line chemotherapy that could be used to treat patients at this bad stage. However, not all patients are fit for chemotherapy. The few who are fit, according to Dr Evbuomwan, usually end up failing the first-line chemotherapy, which has a lot of undesirable side effects and require long-stay hospital admissions. 

Only a few centres are able to offer second-line chemotherapy. So many of these patients end up suffering from prolonged bone pains before eventually dying from the disease.

PRRT is a targeted nuclear medicine therapy that offers the opportunity to deliver very high levels of radiation specifically to cancer cells, because these cancer cells express specific receptors to which certain peptides can bind. This specificity to cancer cells offers the advantage of providing lower doses of radiation and damage to normal organs and tissues, a characteristic that conventional therapies do not offer, explains Dr Evbuomwan.  

According to him, Lutetium 177 PSMA (Lu-177 PSMA) is a type of PRRT used for treating patients with MCRPC, who are not eligible for chemotherapy or have failed first-line chemotherapy. Numerous research studies around the world have proven that this treatment improves quality of life, slows down disease progression, and improves overall survival, with little or very tolerable side effects in most patients. 

The University of Pretoria is one of the pioneers of this treatment in the world, having done a lot of research with it since 2017. Other provinces such as the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal have also recently become involved with the therapy. This therapy is expensive and requires a lot of expertise. It also involves the input of a multidisciplinary team (MDT), which must at least include a nuclear medicine physician, a radiation oncologist, and a urologist. The Departments of Urology and Radiation Oncology at the UFS were also instrumental in the initiation of the therapy and form part of the MDT team at the UFS in the management of these patients.

Treatment puts department, university, and hospital on the map

Dr Evbuomwan says the ability to administer this treatment puts the department, the UFS, and the hospital on the map, alongside other top universities within and outside the country. “It also creates an avenue for us to gather data for research purposes and for publications. We are now able to offer a promising, safe, and highly efficacious therapy for patients with MCRPC in the Free State. Some of these patients no longer need to travel to other provinces to get the treatment.”

There are plans to expand the treatment to more patients – and hospital management, who were present at the first treatment, are excited and looking forward to the outcome of this current treatment.

Watch video below:

News Archive

What do diamonds, chocolates, bugs and almost 30 Nobel Prizes have in common? Crystallography
2014-10-15

 

Some of the keynote speakers and chairpersons at the third world summit in the International Year of Crystallography (in Africa) were, from the left, front: Profs Abdelmalek Thalal (Morocco), Prosper Kanyankogote (University of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo); Habib Bougzala (Tunisia), Santiago Garcia-Granda (IUCr, University Oviedo, Spain), Michele Zema (IYCr 2014, Italy/UK) and Dr Jean-Paul Ngome-Abiaga (UNESCO, Paris, France); back: Dr Thomas Auf der Heyde (Acting Director-general, South African Department of Science and Technology); Dr Petrie Steynberg (SASOL) and Prof André Roodt (UFS, host).

Photo: Marija Zbacnik
The third world summit in the International Year of Crystallography (in Africa) was hosted by Prof André Roodt, Head of the Department of Chemistry and President of the European Crystallographic Association,  at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein.

A declaration with and appeal to support crystallography and science across Africa, was signed.

When one mentions 'Crystallography', or more simply 'crystals', what comes to mind? Diamonds? Perhaps jewellery in general? When thinking of crystals and Crystallography, you will need to think much bigger. And further – even to Mars and back.

Crystallography refers to the branch of science that is concerned with structure and properties of crystals. The obvious examples would include cut diamonds, gemstones such as amethysts, and ‘simple’ crystals such as selenite and quartz.

But have you thought about the irritating brown scales at the bottom of your kettle? The sand in your shoes? The salt over your lamb chops or the sugar in your coffee? All crystals. From egg shells to glucose, from bugs and insecticides to additives in food – even the compounds in chocolate – all fall under the close scrutiny of Crystallography.

The breakthroughs this field of science has produced have led to almost 30 Nobel Prizes over the years.

Determining the structure of DNA by crystallography was arguably one of the most significant scientific events of the 20th century. Different diseases have been cured or slowed by medicines obtained based on crystallographic studies. These include certain cancers, HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Biological Crystallography enables the development of anti-viral drugs and vaccines.

This field of science influences our daily lives in virtually immeasurable ways. Here are but a few areas of study and development Crystallography contributes to:

•    LCD displays;
•    cellular smartphones;
•    insects and insecticides;
•    additives and products in foods;
•    improved effectiveness and security of credit cards;
•    new materials to preserve energy;
•    better gasoline with less by-products;
•    identify colour pigments used in paintings from the old masters, indicating if it’s an original or an imitation; and
•    beauty products such as nail polish, sun-block, mascara and eye shadow.

Crystallography is also currently used by the Curiosity Rover to analyse the substances and minerals on Mars.

Crystals and Crystallography form an integrated part of our daily lives – from bones and teeth to medicines and viruses, from chocolates to the blades in airplane turbines. Even down to the humble snowflake.


We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept