Correlation of Target Volumes on Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen Brain Scans in the Treatment Planning of Glioblastomas.

Abstract

Imaging of gliomas/glioblastomas has always been challenging. Many magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques are available for imaging glioblastomas. MRI cannot always differentiate tumor from nonspecific changes and postoperative changes in brain tissue. Among the new positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) tracers, gallium-68 prostate-specific membrane antigen (Ga-68 PSMA-11 PET-CT) appears to be the most promising one. The absence of uptake by normal brain parenchyma leads to high tumor-to-background ratio leading to better visualization of the tumor. The aim of this study was to assess the correlation of target volumes on MRI and PSMA brain scans in the treatment planning of glioblastomas. Twenty-four patients in the age group of 5-75 years with histologically proven glioblastoma were included in the study following maximum safe resection. Simulation for treatment planning was done with Ga-68 PSMA PET-CT brain with IV iodine-based contrast. The pre- and postoperative MRI images were fused with PSMA simulation images. Gross tumor volumes (GTVs) contoured on T1-contrast MRI and on PSMA scans were compared. GTV contoured on MRI and PSMA brain scans showed complete overlap in 17 patients. In seven patients, the target volumes drawn on Ga-68 PSMA brain scans were slightly smaller than the target volumes drawn on MRI brain scans. This difference in volumes could be due to postoperative changes which showed enhancement on the MRI scan. Ga-68 PSMA PET-CT shows good correlation with MRI brain in the evaluation and RT planning in glioblastomas. Tumor necrosis and postoperative changes did not show PSMA uptake. Precise target delineation on PSMA PET-CT can potentially result in smaller and more accurate GTVs, which in turn would result in less RT-induced side effects.