Clinical Application of 68Ga-PSMA PET in Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is the 7th leading cause of cancer death for men in Taiwan. It is important to identify the extent of disease extent to deliver adequate treatment, either for primary staging or in recurrence. However, conventional imaging techniques including computed tomography, bone scintigraphy, and immunoscintigraphy with 111In-capromab pendetide are not sensitive or specific enough to detect metastatic or recurrent disease. Although more widely applied, magnetic resonance still relies on size and shape criteria. 68Ga-PSMA is a new novel positron emission radiotracer which several preliminary data has shown to be effective of detecting recurrent or metastatic prostate cancer. These studies are confined to a small retrospective European population. In this study we aim to synthesize the novel tracer, find the usefulness of 68Ga-PSMA PET in detecting prostate cancer, including primary staging and recurrence, explore the relationship between imaging and clinical parameters, and seek the possibility of 68Ga-PSMA PET to predict tumor nature and prognosis.