Making cancer drugs is a traditionally a slow and methodical process. Researchers must be careful and precise when developing new medicine. Researchers at the University of Missouri, Cancer Targeted Technology (CTT), and Isotherapeutics Group (ITG), however, discovered a quicker process. They are working on a prostate cancer drug candidate called CTT1403, and they figured out a fast and reliable way to mass-produce it.

This new process will be helpful to the scientists when they need to make more doses for large clinical trials.

A Simple But Faster Process

The drug has two main parts. First, there is lutetium-177, a radioactive isotope made at the university’s research reactor (MURR) that kills cancer cells. Second, there is a targeting molecule that sticks to prostate cancer cells so healthy cells stay safe.

The problem is that the targeting molecule breaks down easily under heat and acid. Usually, workers must attach the lutetium-177 to a carrier molecule using high heat, cool it down, and then attach the targeting molecule. This manual process takes up to six hours from start to finish.

To address this lengthy issue, the team designed a compound where the targeting molecule and the carrier are already connected. They found that keeping the temperature at 60 degrees Celsius lets everything bind together perfectly without damaging the drug. Moreover, an automated machine at MURR cut the production time down to just 38 minutes with the push of a button. Tests showed this quick method works just as well against prostate cancer as the manual way.

“Not only does the new process take less time, it also is much safer because the operators no longer have to physically handle the radioactive drug as much,” Meltem Ocak, one of the study’s researchers, said. “To produce treatments for large clinical trials, it’s crucial that processes are automated and easily reproducible so that operations can scale up in a standardized way. We proved this concept is possible moving forward if this drug candidate were to proceed to larger clinical trials.”

Making Cancer Fighting Drugs More Accessible

Right now, CTT1403 is only in early-stage clinical trials for advanced prostate cancer. However, this new method shows promise to make other cancer treatments faster and safer. Because the automation machine is portable, hospitals might eventually use it to make treatments right onsite. That would make these drugs much easier for patients to get.

“With MURR producing the lutetium-177 and our expertise in both chemistry and radiopharmaceuticals, Mizzou is the perfect place for our research to thrive,” researcher Carolyn Anderson said. “Moving forward, perhaps this protocol or something similar can be used for other cancer diagnostics or treatments involving the lutetium-177 produced at MURR.”