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by Mercy's Kate Shupert
Jim Marret was already having a tough time in December 2008 when he received the devastating news he had cancer. His parents had just passed away, and he hadn’t been feeling well. He went to his doctor in Sikeston and discovered he had bacterial pneumonia. During tests to see if the pneumonia had scarred his lungs, doctors discovered elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels and a spot on his liver, and he was referred to Dr. Linza Killion in Sikeston.
“I went through various treatments and chemo, and each time it would lower my cancer levels but not completely,” Marret said.
In late 2023, Marret began seeing Dr. Andrew Moore, a Mercy oncologist, for all his treatment. That’s when Dr. Moore introduced Marret to Pluvicto, a new treatment — made right here in Missouri — that doesn’t cure prostate cancer but helps patients live longer with improved quality of life with little side effects. His cancer had metastasized to other parts of his body. He thought he was out of options. Marret told Dr. Moore, “Let’s do it. What have I got to lose?”
Pluvicto is an innovative treatment for metastatic prostate cancer that delivers radiation directly to cancer cells. The therapy is administered through an injection or infusion and is given in six separate treatments, usually about six weeks apart. Mercy Cancer Center – Cape Girardeau is the only cancer center in the region offering this pioneering treatment for metastatic prostate cancer patients.
According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, about one in nine men in the state will be diagnosed with the disease, which has the fifth-highest incidence and mortality rates among all cancers in Missouri.
“I’m not going to get any better,” Marret said. “I thought to myself, if anything is going to stop this in its tracks, this is it.”
On June 18, 2025, Dr. Moore and Dr. Toms V. Thomas, a Mercy radiation oncologist, provided Marret the first Pluvicto treatment delivered to a Mercy Cancer Center – Cape Girardeau patient.
“In that first treatment, it was standing room only,” Marret said with a laugh, explaining that since he was the first patient in Cape Girardeau to go through the treatment everyone wanted to see it done.
Over the next year, with his wife Elaine by his side like she had been for the past 57 years, Marret made every treatment and noticed he was feeling progressively better. He says it was like a chemotherapy treatment that is not as hard on his body. Two days after his 78th birthday, he completed his sixth and final treatment with Pluvicto.
He went from having a PSA, a prostate cancer tumor marker, of 364 ng/dl in June 2025 to .02 ng/dl, considered an undetectable amount, at the end of treatment in 2026. Marret was found to have a complete response where all the cancer spots in his body had disappeared.
“Dr. Moore and Dr. Thomas — they saved my life,” Marret said. “Now, I can get out to do more things, and I’m looking forward to being able to do procedures I’ve had to delay because of my health. I can get my legs and knees fixed now. I can get out and back to mowing my yard soon.”
“Don’t be afraid,” Marret said to any metastatic prostate patients wondering what options they have. “Obviously, it’s on a case-by-case basis based upon a person’s health but it helped me. I was very impressed.”
To learn more about Pluvicto and Mercy Cancer Center – Cape Girardeau, visit https://www.mercy.net/practice/mercy-cancer-center-cape-girardeau/ or call 573-519-4830.
