Clinical usefulness of positron emission tomography in prostate cancer
Presse Med . 2007 Dec
Jean-Noël Talbot, Fabrice Gutman, Virginie Huchet, Khaldoun Kerrou, Sona Balogova, Nacer Kerrouche, Françoise Montravers, Dany Grahek, Olivier Cussenot, Bernard Gattegno, Philippe Thibault
Abstract
In prostate cancer, use of FDG, the radiopharmaceutical currently most widely used in oncology, is limited to the most aggressive cancers and, in the absence of another tracer, to attempting to localise occult recurrences detected biochemically (elevated PSA serum levels).Four other PET tracers are currently suggested in various situations of prostate cancer development: for guiding biopsies, for diagnosis and staging of the primary cancer and of local or metastatic recurrences, especially in bone, and for localizing occult biochemical recurrence.
This article is illustrated by cases summarising our experience with fluoromethylcholine-(18F) and PET/CT.
They cover a wide spectrum of clinical settings: localisation of intraprostatic neoplastic lesions, initial staging, monitoring treatment by ultrasound, detection of occult recurrences and characterisation of images on conventional imaging modalities, which are questionable or difficult to interpret.