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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · World J Nucl Med 2022; 21(02): 106-111
DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1750331
Original Article

Cancers and Benign Processes on 68Ga PSMA PET-CT Imaging Other than Prostate Cancer

Pinar Pelin Ozcan
1   Department of Nuclear Medicine, Mersin University, Faculty of Medicine, Mersin, Turkey
,
Mustafa Serdengectı
2   Department of Nuclear Medicine, Aksaray University, Faculty of Medicine, Aksaray, Turkey
,
Zehra Pinar Koc
1   Department of Nuclear Medicine, Mersin University, Faculty of Medicine, Mersin, Turkey
,
Yüksel Balcı
3   Department of Radiology, Mersin University, Faculty of Medicine, Mersin, Turkey
,
Mesut Tek
4   Department of Urology, Mersin University, Faculty of Medicine, Mersin, Turkey
,
Murat Bozlu
4   Department of Urology, Mersin University, Faculty of Medicine, Mersin, Turkey
,
Erdem Akbay
4   Department of Urology, Mersin University, Faculty of Medicine, Mersin, Turkey
,
Vehbi Erçolak
5   Department of Oncology, Mersin University, Faculty of Medicine, Mersin, Turkey
› Author Affiliations Funding None.
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Abstract

Background Imaging plays an important role in the evaluation of prostate cancer patients. In recent years, much attention has been focused on gallium 68 prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography-computed tomography (68Ga PSMA PET-CT) in prostate cancer patients and has been widely used for staging, restaging, and therapy response for these patients. The aim of this study was to report 68Ga PSMA PET-CT in other cancers and benign processes incidentally detected on 68Ga PSMA PET-CT in patients with prostate cancer.

Materials and Methods A total of 600 68Ga PSMA PET-CT scans were performed for initial staging, restaging, detection of suspected recurrence, and therapy response in prostate cancer patients between December 2018 and June 2020. A total of 38 patients with histopathologically proven prostate cancer were included in the current study with other malignancies and benign processes. Mainly histopathology in most of cases and clinical and radiological follow-up in few cases after PET/CT scanning served as the standard of reference.

Results A total of 38 patients (age range: 52–85 years; mean age: 68.6) with prostate cancer final histopathology results were included in the study. A total of 51 lesion sites were evaluated in 38 patients. Forty-one lesion regions of these 51 regions were based on histopathological diagnosis, whereas 10 of them were based on clinical follow-up and conventional radiological follow-up as differential criteria. Thirty of 51 lesion regions were evaluated as malignant and 21 were benign lesions. The most common 68Ga PSMA ligand avid malignancy was lung adenocarcinoma (6/38).

Conclusions Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is a cell surface glycoprotein and mainly expressed in prostate epithelium. 68Ga PSMA PET-CT imaging is very sensitive and specific imaging modality in prostate cancer patients. However, other malignancies and some benign processes may also have 68Ga PSMA ligand avidity and some prostate cancer metastases may imitate other malignancies.

Keywords

68Ga PSMA PET-CT - benign processes - other malignancies - lung cancer - colon cancer - gastric tumor - multiple myeloma


Publication History

Article published online:
05 July 2022

© 2022. World Association of Radiopharmaceutical and Molecular Therapy (WARMTH). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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