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An Update on Radiographic Imaging for Detecting and Staging Prostate Cancer, Evaluating Treatment Response, and as a Prognostic and Predictive Biomarker
Effective prostate cancer treatment relies on accurate disease detection and staging. For this reason, recent improvements in localized and whole-body imaging will transform management. The discussion regarding localized disease continues to focus on prostate MRI. For metastatic disease, there is a palpable excitement following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of PSMA PET diagnostic agents. These technologies are clearly disruptive. However, this disruption will lead to better informed treatment decisions and ultimately, better outcomes. This article provides an update on radiographic imaging for detecting and staging prostate cancer, evaluating treatment response, and as a prognostic and predictive biomarker.

Phillip J. Koo, MD is the Division Chief of Diagnostic Imaging at the Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center in Arizona. Prior to this, he was Chief of Nuclear Medicine and Associate Professor of Radiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He is a diplomate of both the American Board of Radiology (ABR) and American Board of Nuclear Medicine and is the Chair of the Quality and Evidence Committee for the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.
Although definitive local therapy in the form of radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy with or without ADT offers excellent long-term outcomes for the majority of patients with clinically localized prostate cancer, patients with high-risk disease experience primary treatment failure rates approaching 65%.1 Disease persistence/recurrence in such patients may be restricted to the prostatic fossa, pelvic lymph nodes, non-regional lymph nodes (M1a), bones (M1b), or the viscera (M1c).
Read MoreImaging plays a significant role in the diagnosis and management of prostate cancer. While transrectal ultrasound and, subsequently, multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) have become well-established modalities in the initial diagnosis of prostate cancer, numerous techniques for the distant staging of prostate cancer have all suffered from significant limitations.
Read MoreSan Francisco, CA (UroToday.com) PSMA is over-expressed in all prostate tissue, including prostatic carcinoma. Lutetium-177 (177Lu)-PSMA617 (LuPSMA) is a small radiolabeled molecule which binds to PSMA
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