Role of Ga68 Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography in Prostate Cancer Imaging

Abstract

The introduction of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) in clinical practice has revolutionized the evaluation of biochemical recurrence (BCR) of prostate cancer after curative-intent treatment. The high expression of this glycoprotein in prostate cancer cells makes PSMA imaging superior to the current conventional staging methods, namely bone scanning and computed tomography. The high capability of PSMA imaging for identifying very small previously undetected lesions has been widely demonstrated in the literature, leading to a rethinking of patient management by treating physicians. The usual and predictable patterns of spread in prostate cancer are still more prevalent, such as spread to pelvic lymph nodes and bone metastasis, but different patterns of disease spread are becoming more commonly recognized with higher reliability because PSMA imaging allows the detection of more usual and unusual lesions than conventional imaging. The expanding use of PSMA positron emission tomography (PET) has also revealed PSMA ligand uptake in diverse nonprostatic diseases, which raised questions about the specificity of this imaging modality. It is important for the reading physician to recognize and understand the usual disease spread, the most prevalent unusual sites of relapse, and the nonprostatic conditions which are PSMA avid not only to heighten the relevancy of reports but also to improve imaging consultancy in multispecialty oncologic practice. This article aims to brief the role of PSMA PET in the initial staging of multitude of clinical scenarios, BCR, castration-resistant prostate cancer, usual and unusual patterns of recurrence and metastatic spread diagnosed with PSMA PET, normal variants, pitfalls, and nonprostatic disorders showing PSMA expression.