Oliver Sartor, MD: 2023 ASTRO Honorary Member
By Jennifer Jang, ASTRO Communications
ASTRO has named Oliver Sartor, MD, as the 2023 ASTRO Honorary Member. Dr. Sartor is the Director, Radiopharmaceutical Trials at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and was most recently the Laborde Professor of Medicine and Urology at Tulane University School of Medicine and Medical Director of the Tulane Cancer Center. ASTRO recognized him for his outstanding contributions to the research and development of new therapies for prostate cancer, especially “through his leadership of practice changing radiopharmaceutical clinical trials.”
Dr. Sartor has published over 500 articles, many showcasing his contribution to new therapies for prostate cancer. The radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) aspect of his career began in 1989, when after completing his training in internal medicine, he joined a team at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) focusing on new protocols for treating prostate cancer. Up to that point, he had determined that once hormonal therapies were administered, no other options remained for prostate cancer and he knew that new therapies needed to be discovered. NCI had made this area a priority for investment, so he focused on putting together new protocols. Starting out, efforts were discouraging, with patients’ disease progressing rapidly but trials showing little promise.
A pivotal moment occurred in 1993 upon meeting Bill Goeckeler, PhD, a nuclear chemist and patent holder for Samarium-153-EDTMP. He demonstrated how a radioactive particle could be sent to the bony metastasis and radiate the bone where the cancer was located, and Dr. Sartor began to consider how this could be applied to prostate cancer specifically. That meeting was the beginning of his interest in RPT. The two combined their areas of expertise, designing a trial that ultimately led to FDA approval for Samarium-153-EDTMP for prostate cancer treatment.
That was the beginning of Dr. Sartor’s journey exploring the potential of targeted radiation. This exploration included looking at alpha emitters that had not been medically used before and had advantages over beta emitters such as samarium and iodine. Dr. Sartor designed radium-223 trials, observing that radium localized to the matrix produced in excess in prostate cancer. However, what Dr. Sartor determined was more necessary was a targeted therapy that would treat the cancer, not just the bony matrix and microenvironment.
Work that was based in Heidelberg caught his attention, where a pharmaceutical had put together PSMA-targeted RPTs, leading to the VISION trial that revealed the benefits of a tumor-binding RPT. The drug Pluvicto binds to PSMA and can be administered before chemo. Further research helped establish the concept that micro-targeted radiation can improve survival.
While Dr. Sartor’s expertise in the science is well documented, also noteworthy is his expertise with the regulatory process, something not explicitly taught in medical school. He has demonstrated that to change the practice, the regulators are the ones to convince. After all, insurance will only pay for approved drugs, and patients need insurance to have access. “There’s no coursework, you have to learn it…and trials must demonstrate that patients will live better. We have to learn to operate within the realm that regulators allow…we have to work within the framework that the FDA allows.”
Speaking to the importance of collaboration, Dr. Sartor shared: “If anything has defined my career, it is a sense of collaboration and partnership. Those partnerships extend to the universities I’ve been a part of, to the regulators that are trying to do the right things for our patients but need to have the evidence, to the biotech firms….to our colleagues…and the collaborations that inspire us, and the patients that are our ultimate partners.”
Alongside his professorship, Dr. Sartor is also involved with NRG oncology and its predecessor RTOG since 2006 and has had close collaborations with radiation oncology colleagues in the design and implementation of clinical trials. The practice of molecular targeted radiation is what ushered him into the field, and the collegiality therein of figuring out appropriate treatment plans for patients.
Dr. Sartor shared his thoughts on this year’s Annual Meeting theme of Pay it Forward: Partnering with Our Patients, sharing that “The patients truly are our partners. We work on their behalf…Working with our patients is our privilege, our responsibility, and an inspiration. It’s their lives and their health that we hope to impact in a positive way.”
Dr. Sartor will be recognized on Tuesday, October 3, during ASTRO’s 65th Annual Meeting Awards Ceremony.
