The ties that BIND.

Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is a cell surface marker that has made for some pretty nifty diagnostic imaging techniques for prostate cancer. Now it’s specificity is being harnessed for therapeutic means. A phase 2 trial builds off results from CHAARTED, which demonstrated a big survival advantage with early addition of docetaxel to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). The downside of docetaxel remains, of course, the side effects. So BIND-014 was born, with a very similar idea to that behind Kadcyla (aka trastuzumab emtansine aka TDM-1). Basically, docetaxel is wrapped in a nanoparticle tagged with a PSMA-targeted ligand such that only PSMA-expressing (read: prostate cancer) cells take up the chemo. 42 men with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) progressing after abiraterone and/or enzalutamide received BIND-014 via IV q3 weeks until progression. The primary endpoint of median radiographic progression free survival was 10 months, and no patient experienced >G2 toxicity. TBL: Add more targeted chemo to the list of uses for PSMA. | Autio, JAMA Oncol 2018