Diffuse bone metastases on (68)Ga-PSMA PET-CT in a patient with prostate cancer and normal bone scan

A 75-year-old patient was diagnosed with a Gleason 9 prostate carcinoma. His PSA level was 50.4 ng/ml. Routine bone scintigraphy was negative for metastasis (a). Due to the high tumour grading and relatively high PSA level, (68)Ga-PSMA PET-CT was ordered to rule out distant metastases.

This scan showed numerous skeletal lesions with high tracer accumulation as sign of diffuse osseous metastases (b). On low-dose CT there were no signs of sclerosis (c). (68)Ga-PSMA PET-CT also showed high uptake in the prostate and in para-iliac and para-aortal lymph nodes, without lymph node enlargement. No bone biopsy was obtained to confirm the metastases. Due to this result, the treatment plan was changed to systemic therapy, instead of local therapy.

European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging. 2016 Apr 28 [Epub ahead of print]

J Lavalaye, P Kaldeway, H H E van Melick

Department of Nuclear Medicine, Sint Antonius Ziekenhuis, Nieuwegein, The Netherlands. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Sint Antonius Ziekenhuis, Nieuwegein, The Netherlands., Department of Urology, Sint Antonius Ziekenhuis, Nieuwegein, The Netherlands.