CANCER

Advanced imaging finds prostate metastases

US study demonstrates the critical role of PSMA-PET in accurately staging prostate cancer

Max Ryan

January 24, 2025

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  • Conventional imaging may not be able to correctly assess prostate cancer patients whose cancer has metastasised and spread to other areas of the body. 

    Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, looked at a group of people with prostate cancer who were previously classed as non-metastatic using conventional cancer imaging. When they used prostate-specific membrane antigen–positron emission tomographic/computed tomographic (PSMA-PET/CT) imaging instead of conventional imaging almost half of the people screened showed evidence of metastases. PSMA-PET is a relatively new imaging technology that uses small amounts of radio tracers to bind to prostate cancer cells in the patient’s body. This imaging agent then allows these cells to be seen using PET imaging.

    This study, published in JAMA Network Open, found that by using PSMA-PET/CT, 46% of patients had at least one metastasis and 24% had five or more metastases. “Our study demonstrates the critical role of PSMA-PET in accurately staging prostate cancer, which can significantly impact treatment decisions and outcomes,” said senior author of the study Jeremie Calais, associate professor at the department of molecular and medical pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

    These results support others showing its superiority over more conventional imaging for giving accurate diagnostic and prognostic information for patients but the authors say more high-quality prospective data will be needed to claim superiority of PSMA-PET for treatment-guidance in terms of patient outcome.

     
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