Efficacy of early imaging with 68Ga-PSMA-I&T in the discrimination of pelvic lesions in prostate cancer patients.

Abstract

68Ga-PSMA-uptake shows accumulation in the malignant lesions of prostate cancer patients as early as 5min p.i. Studies indicate the value of adding an early image of the pelvis to the imaging protocol of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT scan showed contradictory results. In this study we planned to assess the significance of an additional early imaging in 68Ga-PSMA-I&T PET/CT imaging in prostate cancer patients. A total of 35 prostate cancer patients referred to 68Ga-PSMA-I&T PET/CT imaging for restaging of the disease due to suspicion of relapse after definitive therapy were enrolled. First an early static pelvic image was obtained at a maximum of 300s following injection of the radiotracer. Sixty minutes postinjection a whole-body PET/CT scan was conducted with an emission time of 3min per bed position. The lesions which were categorized as local recurrence, bone lesion and lymph node metástasis in the early images, were compared with the late images in terms of number of lesions detected and SUVmax values. 68Ga-PSMA-I&T PET/CT was positive in 23 of 35 patients (65.7%). A pathological uptake was observed in the prostatic bed site, in the pelvic lymph nodes, and in the bones in 17 patients (48.5%), 12 patients (34.2%), and 13 patients (37.1%), respectively. In one patient, focal pathological increased uptake in the prostatic bed with a SUVmax value of 5.8 was detected but this lesion disappeared in the late images. The average SUVmax values of the lesions in the prostatic bed were 13.7±12.1 versus 26.3±23.8 in the 5min and 60min studies respectively (p<0.001). In one patient, the pathological uptake in the lymph node in the early study cleared in the late study, whereas in another accumulation of activity was detected in a pelvic lymph node in the late study, while there was no lymph node detected in the early study. The average SUVmax values of the lymph nodes were 12.1±8.8 versus 26.3±22.6 in the 5min and 60min studies respectively (p<0.001). The average SUVmax values of the bone lesions were 11.4±6.9 versus 15±10.7 in the 5min and 60min studies respectively. Our study is the first in the literature to evaluate the impact of adding an early static pelvic image to the 68Ga-PSMA-I&T scan, in the detection rate of the lesions. Although there was no marked discordance between the 2sets of images, the addition of an early image to the imaging protocol of 68Ga-PSMA-I&T scan would increase the efficacy of detection of malignant lesions in the pelvis, which might show rapid clearance and has the risk of being masked by the urinary system activity.