The clinical utility of gallium 68 (68Ga)-PSMA PET for the diagnosis and management of prostate cancer is driven in part by radioisotope availability and production costs. This study evaluates the equivalence between the two manufacturing processes for 68Ga-PSMA: 68Ga-PSMA-cyclotron (from a solid target) and 68Ga-PSMA-generator. A prospective, single-arm, single-institution non-randomized study was conducted where 16 patients with prostate adenocarcinoma underwent PET/CTs consecutively within 12 to 48 hours with each type of manufactured 68Ga-PSMA between December 2020 and June 2021. The intraclass correlation coefficients suggested acceptable reliability in all lesion parameters (ICC > 0.70). Bland-Altman analysis demonstrated acceptable bias levels for all lesion parameters. Thereby 68Ga-cyclotron (solid target) and 68Ga-generator production methods tagged to the same PSMA ligand resulted in scans which were deemed to be equivalent in detecting PSMA+ lesions in our study. As cyclotron-produced, solid- target 68Ga can be made in large (Ci) quantities, it is a promising tool for future application in 68Ga-PSMA PET scans with the potential to decrease radiotracer production costs and increase isotope availability.
Translational oncology. 2022 Dec 24 [Epub ahead of print]
Juana Martinez, Kritika Subramanian, Sandra Huicochea Castellanos, Charlene Thomas, Arindam Roy Choudhury, Brett Muench, Scott T Tagawa, Naga Vara Kishore Pillarsetty, Joseph R Osborne
Division of Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics, Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY. Electronic address: ., Division of Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics, Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY., Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Department of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY., Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY., Department of Radiology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY.