At this year’s SNMMI, researchers discussed using PET/CT imaging and Ga-68 PSMA, which is a combination of a radioactive material and molecular compound, to accurately detect tumors while guiding a surgeon during biopsy of a prostate cancer patient.

Researchers, led by Dr. Wolfgang P. Fendler, from the department of nuclear medicine at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat of Munich, evaluated subjects with histopathology, the study of tissue changes due to disease, and also evaluated the maximum standard uptake values using Ga-68 PSMA PET/CT to determine the “boundaries” of the prostate tumor before surgery.

When testing for cancer using histological evaluation, the researchers found that 67 percent of the tissues that tested positive for cancer were positively identified by PET/CT with Ga-68 PSMA.
According to the announcement, the protein PSMA is “over-expressed” on the surface of prostate cancer cells and can be detected even after they have spread to other organs. Once Ga-68 PSMA is injected into a patient, it binds to cells that show PSMA and sends out a signal that can be detected by PET/CT by “glowing like hot coals.”

“PSMA shows significant over-expression on prostatic cancer cells, and Ga-68 PSMA PET/CT demonstrates a high rate of detection in patients with recurrent, metastatic prostate cancer,” said Dr. Fendler, in a statement.

“The results from our study indicate that Ga-68 PSMA PET/CT accurately identifies affected regions of the prostate and might thus present a promising tool for noninvasive tumor characterization and biopsy guidance,” he said.

With further investigation and regulatory approval, oncologists could one day use prostate-specific molecular imaging to aid needle biopsy and primary staging for better prostate-cancer patient care, according to the announcement.

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