Differentiation of prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia: the clinical value of 201Tl SPECT--a pilot study
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Published on: September 3, 2013
Ching-Chiang Yang1, Shung-Shung Sun, Chun-Yi Lin
1Departments of Urology, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
Purpose:
Thallium-201 (201Tl) is a recognized tumor-imaging agent; however, the usefulness of 201Tl in prostate cancer has not been studied. The purpose of this preliminary study was to evaluate the efficacy of 201Tl single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging for differentiating prostate cancer from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).
Methods:
201Tl pelvic SPECT was performed in 10 patients (aged 64-78 years) with biopsy-proven BPH before transurethral resection of the prostate and 15 patients (aged 65-81 years) with biopsy-proven prostate cancer prior to any therapeutic modality or invasive surgical procedures for treatment of their prostate cancer.
Results:
From the 15 patients with prostate cancer, 201Tl pelvic SPECT detected prostate cancer in 13 (86.7%) but not in 2 (13.3%) patients with Gleason scores of 5 (2 + 3). In contrast, all 10 patients with BPH (100.0%) had negative results of 201Tl pelvic SPECT.
Conclusion:
Our study showed that 201Tl pelvic SPECT scan is very helpful in distinguishing between prostate cancer and BPH.
