Dr. Haas on the Role of PSMA in Prostate Cancer

Naomi B. Haas, MD, director, Prostate and Kidney Cancer Program, associate professor of medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, discusses the role of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) in prostate cancer.

PSMA is an antigen expressed on the cell surface that offers an important target for prostate cancer therapy, Haas says.

PSMA is not only a viable target in prostate cancer, Haas adds. Neovascular PSMA expression is common in several other tumor types.

In prostate cancer, as castrate resistance develops, PSMA is overexpressed. As such, patients with castration-resistant disease have more PSMA than patients with early-stage disease, Haas concludes.