Performance of [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT in patients with recurrent prostate cancer after prostatectomy-a multi-centre evaluation of 2533 patients

Purpose: To evaluate the performance of [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT in the diagnosis of recurrent prostate cancer (PC) after prostatectomy in a large multicentre cohort.

Methods: The centres, which contributed to this study, were the departments of nuclear medicine of Heidelberg (Germany), Technical University of Munich (Germany) and Albert Einstein Hospital of São Paulo (Brazil). A total of 2533 patients who were scanned with [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT at 1 h p.i. due to recurrent PC after prostatectomy were included in this retrospective analysis. Exclusion criteria were as follows: patients with untreated primary tumour, previous chemotherapy or Xofigo®; those previously treated with exclusively external beam radiation therapy or HIFU; those referred for PSMA-therapy; and those treated with ADT (including first- and second-generation ADT) within the last 6 months. Potential influences of different factors such as PSA level, PSA doubling-time (PSA_DT), PSA velocity (PSA_Vel), Gleason Score (GSC, including the separate analysis of 7a and 7b), age and amount of injected tracer were evaluated in a multivariable analysis.

Results: The rate of pathologic PET/CT-scans was 43% for PSA ≤ 0.2 ng/ml, 58% for PSA > 0.2 to ≤ 0.5, 72% for PSA > 0.5 to ≤ 1.0 and increased to a maximum of 93% for PSA > 10 ng/ml. A pathological PET/CT was significantly (p = 0.001) associated with PSA level and higher GSC. Amount of injected tracer, age, PSA_DT and PSA_Vel were not associated with a higher probability of a pathological scan.

Conclusion: [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT at 1 h p.i. confirmed its high performance in the largest patient cohort yet analysed. Tumour detection showed a clear association with higher PSA and higher GSC. No association was found between a pathological [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT and age, amount of injected tracer, PSA_DT or PSA_Vel.