BACKGROUND: The role of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) in prostate cancer (PCa) has not been well defined yet.
Because high-grade PCa tends to exhibit increased glycolytic rate, FDG-PET/CT could be useful in this setting. The aim of this study was to assess the value of FDG-PET/CT for pre-operative staging and prognostic stratification of patients with high-grade PCa at biopsy.
METHODS: Fifty-four patients with a Gleason sum ≥8 PCa at biopsy underwent FDG-PET/CT as part of the staging workup. Thirty-nine patients underwent radical prostatectomy (RP) and pelvic lymph node (LN) dissection, 2 underwent LN dissection only, and 13 underwent non-surgical treatments. FDG-PET/CT findings from clinical reports, blinded reading and quantitative analysis were correlated with clinico-pathological characteristics at RP.
RESULTS: Suspicious foci of increased FDG uptake were found in the prostate, LNs and bones in 44, 13 and 6% of patients, respectively. Higher clinical stage, post-RP Gleason sum and pattern, and percentage of cancer involvement within the prostate were significantly associated with the presence of intraprostatic FDG uptake (IPFU) (P < 0.05 in all cases). Patients without IPFU who underwent RP were downgraded to Gleason ≤ 7 in 84.6% of cases, as compared to 30.8% when IPFU was reported (P = 0.003). Qualitative and quantitative IPFU were significantly positively correlated with post-RP Gleason pattern and sum, and pathological T stage. Absence and presence of IPFU were associated with a median 5-year cancer-free survival probability of 70.2 and 26.9% (P = 0.0097), respectively, using the CAPRA-S prognostic tool.
CONCLUSION: These results suggest that, among patients with a high-grade PCa at biopsy, FDG-PET/CT could improve pre-treatment prognostic stratification by predicting primary PCa pathological grade and survival probability following RP.
Written by:
Beauregard JM, Blouin AC, Fradet V, Caron A, Fradet Y, Lemay C, Lacombe L, Dujardin T, Tiguert R, Rimac G, Bouchard F, Pouliot F. Are you the author?
Institution(s): See publishing journal.
Reference: Cancer Imaging. 2015 Mar 3;15(1):2.
doi: 10.1186/s40644-015-0038-0
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 25889163