Posted on 08/15/2023 10:18:34 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
In elderly patients with suspected prostate cancer, a prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography (PSMA PET) CT scan can diagnose advanced disease and aid in therapy selection without the need for a biopsy.
This research demonstrates how imaging with PSMA PET/CT can potentially reduce the number of prostate biopsies in the elderly while providing accurate staging data.
68Ga-PSMA PET/CT has gained acceptance as a highly sensitive and specific imaging modality for evaluating the extent of disease in prostate cancer patients. In general, PSMA PET/CT is indicated when intermediate or high-risk cancer has been found on biopsy. In elderly patients, however, the procedure of prostate biopsy may be associated with longer hospital stay and post-biopsy complications such as infection, bleeding or urinary retention.
One hundred consecutive patients at least 80 years old who underwent staging with 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT were included in the study.
Thirty-four percent of patients in the study had no pre-imaging biopsy. Compared with patients who did have a pre-imaging biopsy, these patients were older with worse clinical status and had higher PSA levels. On 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT, all patients without pre-imaging biopsy were shown to have avid disease, with trends toward higher rates of bone metastases and overall advanced disease.
Similar proportions of patients with and without pre-imaging biopsy were referred for hormonal therapy. In contrast, 63% of patients with biopsy were referred for radiotherapy after imaging, while only 8.8% of patients without pre-imaging biopsy were referred for radiotherapy.
"The results of the current study indicate that 100% of the elderly patients who were referred for PSMA PET/CT on the basis of clinical suspicion only were found to have avid disease. The practice of waiving the need for pre-imaging biopsy when the clinical suspicion is high proves to be effective and to have no apparent negative cost," noted Even-Sapir.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
The biopsy seems less useful with such a procedure, and was completely bypassed, with these men.
You mean I could have avoided all that pain? A needle was injected up my ass and ink injected-painful. Then came the bites.
Pretty sure the "waive" isn't new.......
New!
I’ve got appointment next month for a MRI to check for Prostate Cancer.................
If the patient is going to receive treatment, really even for hormonal manipulation, the biopsy is going to be needed. As a general matter, pathology confirmation is needed before treatment of any cancer. Also, the PSMA PET scans are ridiculously expensive.
Your age is the percentage chance of having prostate cancer.
At age 75 for example there is 75% chance of cancer cells present in prostate.
But there is good news. Most prostate cancer patients will die of old age before the cancer kills them. Only a small fraction of prostate cancers grow fast.
Bkmk
Today my urologist said that I don’t need to make anymore appointments as my numbers have been consistent running in the mid 8’s (normal is 4)
that and my age 85yo, they’re probably figuring if I get “C” it will take 10 years to kill me. He did give me the glove treatment no nodules. Yeah I know TMI.
He doesn’t think you have it, yet?
There are treatments to bring that PSA down. Even supplements that help.
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