Evaluation of Practical Interpretation Hurdles in 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT in 55 Patients

Abstract

Physiologic distribution of Ga-PSMA comprises uptake in lacrimal and salivary glands, vocal cords, Waldeyer ring, liver, spleen, and kidneys as well as various parts of the intestine. Moreover, nonspecific tracer uptake is regularly found in the thyroid and the synovia of the knee. Incidental Ga-PSMA uptake can occasionally reveal nonprostate cancer-associated remodeling processes, such as fibrous dysplasia.

Potential Applications of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT in the Evaluation of Salivary Gland Uptake Function: Preliminary Observations and Comparison with 99mTcO4− Salivary Gland Scintigraphy

“…e mean SUVmax ± standard deviation varied as follows: parotid, 12.3 ± 3.9 (range 5.2-22.9); submandibular gland, 11.7 ± 3.5 (range 6.0-22.2); sublingual gland, 4.5 ± 1.9 (range 1.2-8.5); and lacrimal gland, 6.2 ± 2.2 (range 2.5-13.6) [16]. Our study also confirmed the high uptake of 68 Ga-PSMA-11 in the salivary and lacrimal glands, which is consistent with previous studies [14][15][16][17].…”

“…e general information and PET and SGS imaging results for all 15 patients are shown in Table 1. is study included 4 patients with Sjogren's syndrome (patients 1-4), 10 patients with head and neck tumors after radiotherapy and chemotherapy (patients [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14], and 1 patient with surgery for parotid space-occupying lesions (patient 15).…”

“…A study by Kirchner, J et al found that diffuse uptake in the thyroid (SUVmax ± SD: 4.5 ± 1.2) of 68 Ga-PSMA-11 was found in 22% (12/55) of patients. However, there were no indications about thyroid malignancies or other serious diseases in their data [14]. Some reports described the uptake of 68 Ga-PSMA in follicular adenoma, differentiated thyroid cancer, and medullary thyroid cancer [21][22][23].…”

“…Among them, PSMA-targeted positron emission tomography (PET), especially 68 Ga-PSMA-11, has been widely used for the detection, staging, posttreatment efficacy evaluation, and recurrence assessment of prostate cancer [11][12][13]. However, the binding of PSMA ligands is not limited to prostate cancer cells, and their physiological distribution includes the lacrimal glands, salivary glands, kidneys, duodenum, and small intestine [14]. Salivary glands and lacrimal glands have high uptake levels [14][15][16][17].…”

“…However, the binding of PSMA ligands is not limited to prostate cancer cells, and their physiological distribution includes the lacrimal glands, salivary glands, kidneys, duodenum, and small intestine [14]. Salivary glands and lacrimal glands have high uptake levels [14][15][16][17]. 68 Ga-PSMA PET/CT can enable the visualization of head and neck lacrimal glands, primary and secondary salivary glands, and seromucous glands.…”