The Diagnostic Power of the Gallium-68 Prostate-specific Membrane Antigen Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography in Biochemical Recurrence After Primary Curative Treatment in Patients with Prostate Cancer: A Single-center Experience
1İstanbul Okmeydanı Training and Research Hospital, Clinic of Nuclear Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey
2İstanbul Okmeydanı Training and Research Hospital, Clinic of Radiation Oncology, İstanbul, Turkey
Eur Arch Med Res 2019; 35(4): 241-244 DOI: 10.4274/eamr.galenos.2019.02418
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Abstract

Objective: Our study aimed to investigate the efficacy of Gallium-68 (68Ga) prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) in terms of focus detection in the presence of biochemical recurrence (BCR) after primary curative treatment in patients with prostate cancer (PCa).

Methods: This study included 34 PCa patients who underwent 68Ga-PSMA PET-CT for BCR following radical prostatectomy (RP) or primary curative radiotherapy (RT), between August 2017-December 2018 at Okmeydanı Training and Research Hospital, Clinic of Nuclear Medicine.

Results: Thirteen patients (38.2%) had RP and 21 (61.8%) had RT. PSMA-positive lesion was detected in 21 (61.7%) of 34 patients. PSMA positive lesion was present in six of 13 patients (46.1%) in the RP group and 15 of the 21 patients (71.4%) in the RT group. There was a PSMA-positive lesion in five out of 13 patients with serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) values of 0.01-1 ng/mL, in five of eight patients with serum PSA values of 1-2 ng/mL, in four of five patients with serum PSA values of 2-5 ng/mL, and in seven of eight patients with serum PSA values of >5 ng/mL. PSA levels of PSMA-positive patients were found to be significantly higher than those of PSMA-negative, whereas PSA-positive and negative patients did not differ significantly in terms of PSA doubling time, time to BCR, and Gleason score.

Conclusion: 68Ga-PSMA PET-CT is an effective method in the diagnosis of BCR after primary curative treatment in PCa patients.