‘Dilbert’ creator’s desperate plea highlights alternative prostate cancer drug
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When “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams recently made a public plea for help accessing a life-prolonging cancer treatment, the story gained national attention and raised some questions about the drug itself.
Adams, 67, revealed in May that he has an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread beyond the prostate and no longer responds to standard therapies.
On Sunday, Adams issued a request to President Donald Trump, via X, to help him access a newly approved drug called Pluvicto.
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Pluvicto, a relatively new type of targeted radiation treatment for advanced prostate cancer, aims to slow disease progression, but some barriers may remain in terms of access, timing and side effects.
“My healthcare provider, Kaiser of Northern California, approved my request to receive a recently FDA-approved medication called Pluvicto,” Adams wrote in the post. “But they made a mistake in scheduling the short IV to administer it and I can’t seem to fix that.”
“I’m declining quickly. I’ll ask President Trump if he can get Kaiser of Northern California to respond and schedule it for Monday. That will give me a fighting chance to stay on this planet a little longer.”
Trump shared a screenshot of Adams’ post on Truth Social on Sunday, with the comment: “Go ahead!”
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Kaiser Permanente provided the following statement to News Digital.
“Mr. Adams’ oncology team is working closely with him on the next steps in cancer care, which are already underway. Since it was approved by the FDA three years ago, Kaiser Permanente nuclear medicine and medical oncology experts have treated more than 150 patients with Lu-177 PSMA (Pluvicto) in Northern California alone. We know this drug and this disease.”
Neither the White House nor Adams immediately responded to News Digital’s requests for comment.
What is Pluvicto?
Pluvicto, which has the active English lutetium Luke 177 Vipivotide Teterxetan, is manufactured by Novarti Ag, a new genre-based pharmaceutical company.
The drug delivers targeted ionizing radiation directly to tumor cells, with the goal of minimizing damage to healthy cells, Novartis told News Digital.
Scott Adams, cartoonist, author and creator of “Dilbert,” revealed in May that he suffers from an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread beyond the prostate and no longer responds to standard therapies. (Getty Images)
The medication is what’s known as “radioligand therapy,” according to Dr. Alan Bryce, a medical oncologist and clinical director at City of Hope Phoenix.
“This is a radioactive isotope, which has been linked to a molecule that delivers the isotope to prostate cancer cells,” he told News Digital. “In this way, it has the advantage of concentrating the active drug at the site of cancerous tissue and delivering less drug to healthy tissues.”
Pluvicto “provides a good alternative means of attack compared to the other options.”
According to Bryce, Pluvicto is effective in both suppressing cancer and prolonging the patient’s life. “Its success in suppressing cancer also means it frequently improves symptoms, reducing pain and giving the patient more energy,” he added.
Pluvicto is currently the only radioligand therapy approved for prostate cancer, Bryce said, “so it provides a good alternative means of attack compared to the other options.”
“I’m declining quickly. I’ll ask President Trump if he can get Kaiser of Northern California to respond and schedule it for Monday,” Adams wrote on X. “That will give me a fighting chance to stay on this planet a little longer.” (Getty Images)
The drug was approved by the FDA in March 2022 for the treatment of adult patients with a certain type of metastatic prostate cancer: metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, which has a high level of prostate-specific membrane antigen positivity. Patients would have already received androgen receptor (AR) pathway inhibitors (hormone-blocking drugs that help prevent cancer from growing) and taxane-based chemotherapy (which stops cancer cells from reproducing).
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Starting in 2025, the drug will also be approved for people who have received AR drugs and can delay chemotherapy.
Pluvicto is usually given by intravenous infusion every six weeks for a maximum of six doses, depending on how the disease progresses and how the patient tolerates the medication.
Barriers to access Pluvicto
The shortage of radioactive particles at Pluvicto has caused supply chain shortages in the past, which have since improved, according to Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for News.
Pluvicto must be handled carefully and in a strictly controlled environment because of its radioactivity, Bryce said.
Pluvicto delivers targeted ionizing radiation directly to tumor cells, with the goal of minimizing damage to healthy cells. (iStock)
“This means that it is not necessarily available in all oncologist offices, and in some communities it may only be available in certain practices,” he said. “During the initial launch, there were manufacturing difficulties that limited availability, but that is no longer an issue.”
Each dose must be manufactured and administered to a specific patient, Bryce said, since the isotope will decay over time and cannot be stored for future use.
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In Adams’ case, Bryce said, it appears the drug was approved, but there were scheduling difficulties.
“This may reflect limitations of the medical infrastructure in the local environment and points to the importance of systems that are capable of delivering care as quickly and efficiently as possible while maintaining safety.”
Possible side effects
In clinical trials, the most common side effects of Pluvicto were fatigue, dry mouth, nausea, back pain, joint pain, decreased appetite and constipation, Novartis confirmed to News Digital. These effects are usually mild to moderate.
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Some patients may also notice changes in blood test results, such as lower levels of blood cells or certain minerals, which doctors may monitor during treatment.
In rare cases, serious side effects may include bleeding problems, infections (such as sepsis), kidney injury, or blood clots in the lungs (pulmonary embolism), according to the FDA prescribing information.
In clinical trials, the most common side effects of Pluvicto were fatigue, dry mouth, nausea, back pain, joint pain, decreased appetite, and constipation. (iStock)
The medication contains a small amount of radioactive material, which means it must be handled carefully to minimize radiation exposure.
Pluvicto can sometimes affect the kidneys and should not be used during pregnancy due to the risk to the fetus, the prescribing information warns.
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“Chemotherapy has more systemic side effects, because Pluvicto targets only the affected tissue,” Siegel said.
According to Bryce, Pluvicto is generally an easier drug to take than chemotherapy, although every patient is different.
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According to the American Cancer Society, approximately one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lives. In 2025, it is estimated that about 35,770 patients will die from the disease.
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among men in the US, after lung cancer.
Melissa Rudy is a senior health editor and member of the lifestyle team at News Digital. Story tips can be sent to melissa.rudy@News.com.