[Significance of PSMA imaging in prostate cancer].

BACKGROUND

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common malignancies of men in developed countries. To improve clinical diagnostics of PCa, Ga-PSMA-11 was recently introduced as a new PET tracer. Ga-PSMA-11 is able to specifically bind to the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), which is upregulated on the surface of prostate cancer cells in most patients.

OBJECTIVES

To analyse the current significance of Ga-PSMA-11 PET imaging in prostate cancer in relation to staging of men with initial diagnosis, biochemical recurrence and metastatic disease.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Retrospective analysis of current literature (PubMed search) regarding Ga-PSMA-11 PET diagnostics in primary staging, in biochemical recurrence and in metastasized disease.

RESULTS

Compared to conventional imaging, Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT reaches a higher sensitivity with an excellent specificity in the clinical diagnosis of primary staging as well as staging for recurrence and advanced, metastasized disease. In biochemical recurrence, Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT shows significantly higher detection rates in comparison to choline PET/CT, especially in patients with low PSA values. In the clinical diagnosis of recurrent disease, therapy concepts were changed in more than a quarter of the patients due to the use of Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT. The significance of staging with Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT in advanced metastasized patients remains uncertain.

CONCLUSIONS

Due to the excellent results of Ga-PSMA-11 PET imaging, even in patients with slightly elevated PSA levels, it will continue to play an important role in clinical diagnostics of prostate cancer and, thus, its clinical utilization will become more widely spread.