Comparison of bone scintigraphy and 68 Ga-PSMA PET for skeletal staging in prostate cancer

• Published in: European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging 2016-11, Vol.43 (12), p.2114
• Main Authors: Pyka, Thomas, Okamoto, Shozo, Dahlbender, Marielena, Tauber, Robert, Retz, Margitta, Heck, Matthias, Tamaki, Nagara, Schwaiger, Markus, Maurer, Tobias, Eiber, Matthias
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Antigens, Surface; Bone Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Bone Neoplasms - pathology; Bone Neoplasms - secondary; Gallium Radioisotopes; Glutamate Carboxypeptidase II; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Staging; Positron-Emission Tomography - methods; Prostatic Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Prostatic Neoplasms - pathology; Radiopharmaceuticals; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity
• ISSN: 1619-7089

The aim of our study was to compare the diagnostic performance of Ga-PSMA PET and Tc bone scintigraphy (BS) for the detection of bone metastases in prostate cancer (PC) patients. One hundred twenty-six patients who received planar BS and PSMA PET within three months and without change of therapy were extracted from our database. Bone lesions were categorized into benign, metastatic, or equivocal by two experienced observers. A best valuable comparator (BVC) was defined based on BS, PET, additional imaging, and follow-up data. The cohort was further divided into clinical subgroups (primary staging, biochemical recurrence, and metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer [mCRPC]). Additionally, subgroups of patients with less than 30 days delay between the two imaging procedures and with additional single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) were analyzed. A total of 75 of 126 patients were diagnosed with bone metastases. Sensitivities and specificities regarding overall bone involvement were 98.7-100 % and 88.2-100 % for PET, and 86.7-89.3 % and 60.8-96.1 % (p