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Comparison of 68Ga-labelled PSMA-11 and 11C-choline in the detection of prostate cancer metastases by PET/CT

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Abstract

Purpose

Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is expressed ubiquitously on the membrane of most prostate tumors and its metastasis. While PET/CT using 11C-choline was considered as the gold standard in the staging of prostate cancer, PET with radiolabelled PSMA ligands was introduced into the clinic in recent years. Our aim was to compare the PSMA ligand 68Ga-PSMA-11 with 11C-choline in patients with primary and recurrent prostate cancer.

Methods

123 patients underwent a whole-body PET/CT examination using 68Ga-PSMA-11 and 11C-choline. Suspicious lesions were evaluated visually and semiquantitatively (SUVavg). Out of these, 103 suffered from a confirmed biochemical relapse after prostatectomy and/or radiotherapy (mean PSA level of 4.5 ng/ml), while 20 patients underwent primary staging.

Results

In 67 patients with biochemical relapse, we detected 458 lymph nodes suspicious for metastasis. PET using 68Ga-PSMA-11 showed a significantly higher uptake and detection rate than 11C-choline PET. Also 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET identified significantly more patients with suspicious lymph nodes as well as affected lymph nodes regions especially at low PSA levels. Bone lesions suspicious for prostate cancer metastasis were revealed in 36 patients’ biochemical relapse. Significantly more bone lesions were detected by 68Ga-PSMA-11, but only 3 patients had only PSMA-positive bone lesions. Nevertheless, we detected also 29 suspicious lymph nodes and 8 bone lesions, which were only positive as per 11C-choline PET. These findings led to crucial differences in the TNM classification and the identification of oligometastatic patients. In the patients who underwent initial staging, all primary tumors showed uptake of both tracers. Although significantly more suspicious lymph nodes and bone lesions were identified, only 2 patients presented with bone lesions only detected by 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET.

Conclusion

Thus, PET using 68Ga-PSMA-11 showed a higher detection rate than 11C-choline PET for lymph nodes as well as bone lesions. However, we found lymph nodes and bone lesions which were not concordant applying both tracers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine and Clinical Molecular Imaging, Eberhard Karls University, Otfried-Müller-Straße 14, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Johannes Schwenck & Christian la Fougère

  2. Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Eberhard Karls University, Hoppe-Seyler-Straße 3, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Hansjoerg Rempp, Konstantin Nikolaou & Christina Pfannenberg

  3. Department of Preclinical Imaging and Radiopharmacy, Eberhard Karls University, Röntgenweg 13, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Johannes Schwenck & Gerald Reischl

  4. Department of Urology, Eberhard Karls University, Hoppe-Seyler-Straße 3, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Stephan Kruck & Arnulf Stenzl

  5. German Cancer Consortium, German Cancer Research Center Partner Site, Heidelberg, Germany

    Christian la Fougère

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  1. Johannes Schwenck
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Correspondence to Christian la Fougère.

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Ethical approval

All patients gave written informed consent for the purpose of anonymized evaluation and publication of their data. All reported investigations were conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration and with national regulations. The data analysis was approved by the ethics committee of the University of Tübingen (416/2015R).

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Nothing to declare.

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Authors’ contributions

Conception and design: JS, ClF, HR; Analysis and interpretation of data: JS, HR CP, ClF; Drafting manuscript and critical revision JS, ClF, HR, CP, SK, AS, GR and KN. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Schwenck, J., Rempp, H., Reischl, G. et al. Comparison of 68Ga-labelled PSMA-11 and 11C-choline in the detection of prostate cancer metastases by PET/CT. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 44, 92–101 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-016-3490-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-016-3490-6

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