Clinical impact of 18F-choline PET/CT in patients with recurrent prostate cancer

• DOI: 10.1007/s00259-012-2083-2
• Publication Date: 2012-03-13T16:13:04Z
• Authors: Jan D. Soyka; Marco A. Muster; Daniel T. Schmid; Burkhardt Seifert; Ulrike Schick; Raymond Miralbell; Sandra Jorcano; Kathrin Zaugg; Hans-Helge Seifert; Patrick Veit-Haibach; Klaus Strobel; Niklaus G. Schaefer; Daniela B. Husarik; Thomas F. Hany
• Keywords: Adult; Male; 610 Medicine & health; ddc:616.0757; Multimodal Imaging; Choline; info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/616.0757; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Recurrence; 2741 Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging; Prostatic Neoplasms/metabolism/radionuclide imaging/therapy; Humans; Aged; Retrospective Studies; Positron-Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography; Prostatic Neoplasms; 10060 Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute (EBPI); Middle Aged; Prostate-Specific Antigen; 10044 Clinic for Radiation Oncology; 3. Good health; Prostate-Specific Antigen/metabolism; Choline/analogs & derivatives/diagnostic use; Positron-Emission Tomography; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

To investigate the clinical value of (18)F-fluorocholine PET/CT (CH-PET/CT) in treatment decisions in patients with recurrent prostate cancer (rPCA).The study was a retrospective evaluation of 156 patients with rPCA and CH-PET/CT for restaging. Questionnaires for each examination were sent to the referring physicians 14-64 months after examination. Questions included information regarding initial extent of disease, curative first-line treatment, and the treatment plan before and after CH-PET/CT. Additionally, PSA values at diagnosis, after initial treatment, before CH-PET/CT and at the end of follow-up were also obtained from the questionnaires.Mean follow-up was 42 months. The mean Gleason score was 6.9 at initial diagnosis. Initial treatment was: radical prostatectomy in 110 patients, radiotherapy in 39, and combined prostatectomy and radiotherapy in 7. Median PSA values before CH-PET/CT and at the end of follow-up were 3.40 ng/ml and 0.91 ng/ml. PSA levels remained stable, decreased or were below measurable levels in 108 patients. PSA levels increased in 48 patients. In 75 of the 156 patients (48%) the treatment plan was changed due to the CH-PET/CT findings. In 33 patients the therapeutic plan was changed from palliative treatment to treatment with curative intent. In 15 patients treatment was changed from curative to palliative. In 8 patients treatment was changed from curative to another strategy and in 2 patients from one palliative strategy to another. In 17 patients the treatment plan was adapted.CH-PET/CT has an important impact on the therapeutic strategy in patients with rPCA and can help to determine an appropriate treatment.