Investigations with FDG-PET Scanning in Prostate Cancer Show Limited Value for Clinical Practice

Production of hyperpolarized [1,4- 13 C 2 ]malate from [1,4- 13 C 2 ]fumarate is a marker of cell necrosis and treatment response in tumors

“…FDG-PET has proved useful for monitoring treatment response in many tumor types (21)(22)(23)(24)(25). However, it involves a significant dose of ionizing radiation and is of limited value in some tumor types such as prostate cancer (26). Consequently, there is a need for alternative imaging techniques to assess treatment response.…”

Analysis of Intraprostatic Therapeutic Effects in Prostate Cancer Patients Using [11C]-Choline pet/ct after External-Beam Radiation Therapy

“…Use of the most common pet radiotracer, [ 18 F]-fluoro-2-deoxyd-glucose ([ 18 F]-fdg), has led to mixed results based on its overlapping accumulation in normal prostate tissue, benign prostatic hyperplasia, and prostate cancer tissue [2][3][4] . Furthermore, accumulation of [ 18 F]-fdg in the urinary bladder may mask uptake in the prostate gland and pelvic nodes, limiting their assessment 5 .…”

Incidental diagnosis of a PSA-negative prostate cancer by 18FDG PET/CT in a patient with hypopharyngeal cancer

“…This has to be emphasized as these biochemical findings are sometimes unspecific and may also be found in patients with nonmalignant diseases of the prostate gland such as benign hyperplasia, prostatitis or even in healthy individuals. [2][3][4][5][6]9,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18] Even the described slight increase of the PSA level from 1.68 to 2.21 ng/ml after 2 years, which consecutively decreased to 1.9 ng/ml at the time of surgery, or a potential rise of the percent-free PSA in relation to total PSA, would not have required a prostate biopsy in any case as, despite the described rise of the PSA, PSA levels were still within and even not at the upper limit (4.0 ng/ml) of the normal range. In addition, estimation of percent-free PSA is also prone to variations between malignant and benign masses of the prostate.…”

“…11 Consequently, several previously published studies failed to show a beneficial impact of FDG-PET, except in the detection and localization of distant metastases in hormone-refractory PC. 2,5,6,9,[12][13][14][15] Additionally, even the recently introduced PET/CT technique, adding morphological information to metabolic data of FDG-PET, failed to improve the diagnostic value of FDG-PET imaging for PC in a small series of patients. 15 Data regarding new radiotracers for the diagnosis of PC, for example 11 C-choline, seem to have a beneficial impact on the diagnostic value as compared to FDG-PET, but data are still discussed controversially and, as of yet, failed to show a significant correlation between the uptake of 11 C-choline and tumor grade or Gleason score.…”