PSMA PET-CT in the Diagnosis and Staging of Prostate Cancer (original) (raw)

The Continuum of Metastatic Prostate Cancer: Interpreting PSMA PET Findings in Recurrent Prostate Cancer

Cancers

Conventional imaging has been the standard imaging modality for assessing prostate cancer recurrence and is utilized to determine treatment response to therapy. Molecular imaging with PSMA PET–CT has proven to be more accurate, sensitive, and specific at identifying pelvic or distant metastatic disease, resulting in earlier diagnosis of advanced disease. Since advanced disease may not be seen on conventional imaging, due to its lower sensitivity, but can be identified by molecular imaging, this reveals that metastatic prostate cancer occurs on a continuum from negative PSMA PET–CT and negative conventional imaging to positive PSMA PET–CT and positive conventional imaging. Understanding this continuum, the accuracy of these modalities, and treatment related outcomes based on imaging, will allow the clinician to counsel patients on management. This review will highlight the differences in conventional and molecular imaging in prostate cancer and how PSMA PET–CT can be used for the man...

Revisiting Prostate Cancer Recurrence with PSMA PET: Atlas of Typical and Atypical Patterns of Spread

RadioGraphics, 2019

The introduction of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) in clinical practice has revolutionized evaluation of biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer after curative-intent treatment. The high expression of this glycoprotein in prostate cancer cells makes PSMA imaging superior to the current conventional staging methods, namely bone scanning and CT. The high capability of PSMA imaging for identifying very small previously undetected lesions has been widely demonstrated in the literature, leading to a rethinking of patient management by oncologists, urologists, and radiation oncologists. The typical and predictable patterns of spread in prostate cancer are still more prevalent, such as spread to pelvic lymph nodes and bone metastasis, but different patterns of disease spread are becoming more commonly recognized with higher reliability because PSMA imaging allows detection of more typical and atypical lesions than conventional imaging. Furthermore, it is important for the reading physician to recognize and understand the typical disease spread and the most prevalent atypical prostate cancer relapses, not only to heighten the relevancy of reports but also to improve imaging consultancy in multispecialty oncologic practice. ©

The Impact of PSMA PET/CT on Modern Prostate Cancer Management and Decision Making—The Urological Perspective

Cancers

Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) PET use in prostate cancer treatment has recently become a routinely used imaging modality by urologists. New, established data regarding its performance in different stages of prostate cancer, as well as gaining clinical knowledge with new tracers, drives the need for urologists and other clinicians to improve the utilization of this tool. While the use of PSMA PET/CT is more common in metastatic disease, in which it outperforms classical imaging modalities and drives treatment decisions and adjustments, recently, it gained ground in localized prostate cancer as well, especially in high-risk disease. Still, PSMA PET/CT might reveal lesions within the prostate or possibly locoregional or metastatic disease, not always representing true cancer when utilized in earlier stages of the disease, potentially adding diagnostic burden and changing treatment decisions. As urological treatment options advance toward focal treatments in localized organ-...

Clinical perspectives of PSMA PET/MRI for prostate cancer

Clinics (Sao Paulo, Brazil), 2018

Prostate cancer imaging has become an important diagnostic modality for tumor evaluation. Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography (PET) has been extensively studied, and the results are robust and promising. The advent of the PET/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has added morphofunctional information from the standard of reference MRI to highly accurate molecular information from PET. Different PSMA ligands have been used for this purpose including 68gallium and 18fluorine-labeled PET probes, which have particular features including spatial resolution, imaging quality and tracer biodistribution. The use of PSMA PET imaging is well established for evaluating biochemical recurrence, even at low prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, but has also shown interesting applications for tumor detection, primary staging, assessment of therapeutic responses and treatment planning. This review will outline the potential role of PSMA PET/MRI for the clinical asses...

Detection efficacy of [18F]PSMA-1007 PET/CT in 251 Patients with biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy

Journal of Nuclear Medicine

Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-targeted PET imaging recently emerged as a new method for the staging and restaging of prostate cancer. Most published studies investigated the diagnostic potential of 68 Ga-labeled PSMA agents that are excreted renally. 18 F-PSMA-1007 is a novel PSMA ligand that has excellent preclinical characteristics and that is only minimally excreted by the urinary tract, a potential advantage for pelvic imaging. The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic efficacy of 18 F-PSMA-1007 for biochemical recurrence (BCR) after radical prostatectomy. Methods: From 3 academic centers, 251 patients with BCR after radical prostatectomy were evaluated in a retrospective analysis. Patients who had received second-line androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) or chemotherapy were excluded, but prior first-line ADT exposure was allowed. The median prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level was 1.2 ng/mL (range, 0.2-228 ng/mL). All patients underwent PSMA PET/CT at 92 ± 26 min after injection of 301 ± 46 MBq of 18 F-PSMA-1007. The rate of detection of presumed recurrence sites was correlated with the PSA level and original primary Gleason score. A comparison to a subset of patients treated previously with ADT was undertaken. Results: Of the 251 patients, 204 (81.3%) had evidence of recurrence on 18 F-PSMA-1007 PET/CT. The detection rates were 94.0% (79/84), 90.9% (50/55), 74.5% (35/47), and 61.5% (40/65) for PSA levels of greater than or equal to 2, 1 to less than 2, 0.5 to less than 1, and 0.2 to less than 0.5 ng/mL, respectively. 18 F-PSMA-1007 PET/CT revealed local recurrence in 24.7% of patients (n 5 62). Lymph node metastases were present in the pelvis in 40.6% of patients (n 5 102), in the retroperitoneum in 19.5% of patients (n 5 49), and in supradiaphragmatic locations in 12.0% of patients (n 5 30). Bone and visceral metastases were detected in 40.2% of patients (n 5 101) and in 3.6% of patients (n 5 9), respectively. In tumors with higher Gleason scores (#7 vs. $8), detection efficacy trended higher (76.3% vs. 86.7%) but was not statistically significant (P 5 0.32). However, detection efficacy was higher in patients who had received ADT (91.7% vs. 78.0%) within 6 mo before imaging (P 5 0.0179). Conclusion: 18 F-PSMA-1007 PET/CT offers high detection rates for BCR after radical prostatectomy that are comparable to or better than those published for 68 Ga-labeled PSMA ligands.

68Ga PSMA-11 PET with CT urography protocol in the initial staging and biochemical relapse of prostate cancer

Cancer imaging : the official publication of the International Cancer Imaging Society, 2017

68Ga-labelled prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) ligand PET/CT is a promising modality in primary staging (PS) and biochemical relapse (BCR) of prostate cancer (PC). However, pelvic nodes or local recurrences can be difficult to differentiate from radioactive urine. CT urography (CT-U) is an established method, which allows assessment of urological malignancies. The study presents a novel protocol of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT-U in PS and BCR of PC. A retrospective review of PSMA PET/CT-U preformed on 57 consecutive patients with prostate cancer. Fifty mL of IV contrast was administered 10 min (range 8-15) before the CT component of a combined PET/CT study, acquired approximately 60 min (range 40-85) after administration of 166 MBq (range 91-246) of 68Ga-PSMA-11. PET and PET/CT-U were reviewed by two nuclear medicine physicians and CT-U by a radiologist. First, PET images were reviewed independently followed by PET/CT-U images. Foci of activity which could not unequivocally be asses...

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Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine, 2018

Recently, prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) targeted PET-imaging has emerged as new method of staging and restaging of prostate cancer. Most published studies have investigated the diagnostic potential of Ga-labeled PSMA-agents which are excreted renally. [F]PSMA-1007 is a novel PSMA-ligand with excellent preclinical characteristics which is only minimally excreted by the urinary tract, a potential advantage for pelvic imaging. The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic efficacy of [F]PSMA-1007 in biochemical recurrence (BCR) after radical prostatectomy (RP). 251 patients from three academic centers with BCR after radical prostatectomy were evaluated in a retrospective analysis. Patients who had received second line androgen deprivation therapy and/or chemotherapy were excluded, however prior first line ADT exposure was allowed. The median PSA-level was 1.2 ng/ml (range: 0.2-228 ng/mL). All patients underwent a PSMA-PET/CT after injection of 301±46 MBq [F]PSMA-1...

Bridging the imaging gap: PSMA PET/CT has a high impact on treatment planning in prostate cancer patients with biochemical recurrence – a narrative review of literature

Journal of Nuclear Medicine

68 Ga-and 18 F-labeled prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) molecules have created new opportunities for the unmet diagnostic needs in prostate cancer. The purpose of this article is to give an overview of studies that have examined the role of PSMA PET in treatment planning for prostate cancer patients with biochemical recurrence (BCR). Methods: Medline, Embase, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Cochrane Central were searched for relevant articles. After excluding the articles that did not fulfill the required criteria, we included in this review 12 publications that reported the impact of PSMA PET on the treatment plan for prostate cancer patients with BCR. Results: All studies in our review emphasized the impact of PSMA PET images on therapy management in prostate cancer patients with BCR. Overall, the impact of PSMA PET/CT on therapy management varied between 30% and 76% among the 1,346 patients included in the review. Upstaging was reported in 32%-67% of the patients. Patients with low prostate-specific antigen values (,0.5 ng/mL) also demonstrated positive lesions, which could not have been detected by means of conventional imaging techniques. Important modifications to the original treatment plan included avoidance of systemic therapy (17%-40%) and PET-directed local therapy (in #60% of the patients). Conclusion: PSMA imaging demonstrated a high clinical impact in patients with BCR, with modifications to the original treatment plan occurring among half the patients. Detecting recurrence in BCR can prevent unnecessary toxicity and lead to individualized therapy.

Predicting the Risk of Metastases by PSMA-PET/CT—Evaluation of 335 Men with Treatment-Naïve Prostate Carcinoma

Cancers, 2021

Simple Summary Prostate carcinoma is the most common visceral cancer for men and the second most common cause of death. The early detection of micrometastasis may improve clinical outcome due to individual treatment approaches like early intensified therapy. Imaging using prostate-specific membrane antigen-positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PSMA-PET/CT) has a high potential of detecting even small metastases. Therefore, the present study aimed to analyze data of 335 men with primary diagnosed prostate cancer and available PSMA-PET/CT with regard to characteristic PET-parameters and the detection of metastases. We observed that an increased accumulation of the PET-tracer measured in the primary tumor significantly correlates with the presence of distant metastases. The current results may be helpful in decision making of individual treatment escalation for a variety of men with aggressive disease which should improve clinical outcome. Abstract Men diagnosed with aggres...

68Ga-PSMA PET/CT in patients with recurrent prostate cancer after radical treatment: prospective results in 314 patients

European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, 2018

Purpose We studied the usefulness of 68 Ga-prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) PET/CT for detecting relapse in a prospective series of patients with biochemical recurrence (BCR) of prostate cancer (PCa) after radical treatment. Methods Patients with BCR of PCa after radical surgery and/or radiotherapy with or without androgen-deprivation therapy were included in the study. 68 Ga-PSMA PET/CT scans performed from the top of the head to the mid-thigh 60 min after intravenous injection of 150 ± 50 MBq of 68 Ga-PSMA were interpreted by two nuclear medicine physicians. The results were correlated with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels at the time of the scan (PSApet), PSA doubling time, Gleason score, tumour stage, postsurgery tumour residue, time from primary therapy to BCR, and patient age. When available, 68 Ga-PSMA PET/CT scans were compared with negative 18 F-choline PET/CT scans routinely performed up to 1 month previously. Results From November 2015 to October 2017, 314 PCa patients with BCR were evaluated. Their median age was 70 years (range 44-92 years) and their median PSApet was 0.83 ng/ml (range 0.003-80.0 ng/ml). 68 Ga-PSMA PET/CT was positive (one or more suspected PCa lesions detected) in 197 patients (62.7%). Lesions limited to the pelvis, i.e. the prostate/prostate bed and/or pelvic lymph nodes (LNs), were detected in 117 patients (59.4%). At least one distant lesion (LNs, bone, other organs, separately or combined with local lesions) was detected in 80 patients (40.6%). PSApet was higher in PET-positive than in PET-negative patients (P < 0.0001). Of 88 patients negative on choline PET/CT scans, 59 (67%) were positive on 68 Ga-PSMA PET/CT. Conclusion We confirmed the value of 68 Ga-PSMA PET/CT in restaging PCa patients with BCR, highlighting its superior performance and safety compared with choline PET/CT. Higher PSApet was associated with a higher relapse detection rate.