Michael Hofman, MBBS, FRACP, FAANMS, FICIS, GAICD, presented “Molecular Imaging: PSMA PET/CT” during the 7th Global Summit on Precision Diagnosis and Treatment of Prostate Cancer on September 21, 2023.
How to cite: Hofman, Michael. “Molecular Imaging: PSMA PET/CT.” September 21, 2023. Accessed Apr 2024. https://grandroundsinurology.com/molecular-imaging-psma-pet-ct/
Molecular Imaging: PSMA PET/CT – Summary
Michael Hofman, MBBS, FRACP, FAANMS, FICIS, GAICD, compares the effectiveness of PSMA PET with CT against the standard CT and bone scan. He begins by briefly reviewing findings from the ProPSMA study, which indicated that PSMA PET/CT had greater accuracy in identifying prostate cancer than a standard CT plus bone scan, or “conventional imaging.”
Dr. Hofman discusses the adoption of PSMA PET/CT as a standard of care in different international medical guidelines. He notes that some medical communities have embraced PSMA PET/CT as a replacement for conventional imaging in patients who meet the appropriate criteria for PSMA PET/CT, while others have only adopted it as a supplement to conventional imaging.
Dr. Hofman argues against a common argument for keeping conventional imaging scans as part of standard care, the issue of stage migration. Dr. Hofman argues that, while PSMA PET/CT is a more sensitive test, it also has greater specificity and yields fewer false-positives than conventional imaging. He supports this point by evaluating several equivocal studies comparing PSMA PET/CT and CT/bone scans in patients with various metastatic burdens.
Dr. Hofman concludes with a brief discussion on the lower financial burden of PSMA PET/CT, and on the future directions of PSMA PET/CT in detecting quantitative total tumor volume. He acknowledges the lack of standardization in PSMA PET/CT reporting and encourages fellow clinicians and academics to participate in the creation of standard reporting practices for PSMA PET/CT.
The Global Summit on Precision Diagnosis and Treatment of Prostate Cancer is a unique multi-disciplinary forum organized to inform the key health care stakeholders about the emerging advances in clinical case and research and create a consensus-based vision for the future of precision care and educational and research strategy for its realization. The mission of the Summit is to fill the currently existing gap between the key experts of in vivo imaging, the world authorities in the in vitro fluid- and tissue-based molecular diagnostics, including genomics, and thought leaders in the development of novel observation strategies (e.g., active surveillance, or AS) and therapeutic interventions.
