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Published on: April 17, 2019
Diagnostic Value of 68Ga PSMA-11 PET/CT Imaging of Brain Tumors-Preliminary Analysis
Arun Sasikumar1, Ajith Joy, M R A Pillai
1From the *Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET/CT KIMS-DDNMRC, Trivandrum, Kerala; †Molecular Group of Companies, Puthuvype, Ernakulam, Kerala; ‡Department of Radiation Oncology, Regional Cancer Centre, Trivandrum, Kerala; §Department of Radiation Oncology, KIMS Cancer Centre, Trivandrum, Kerala; and ∥Department of Neurosurgery, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum, Kerala, India.
Objective:
To evaluate the feasibility of using Ga PSMA-11 PET/CT for imaging brain lesions and its comparison with F-FDG.
Methods:
Ten patients with brain lesions were included in the study. Five patients were treated cases of glioblastoma with suspected recurrence. F-FDG and Ga PSMA-11 brain scans were done for these patients. Five patients were sent for assessing the nature (primary lesion/metastasis) of space occupying lesion in brain. They underwent whole body F-FDG PET/CT scan and a primary site elsewhere in the body was ruled out. Subsequently they underwent Ga PSMA-11 brain PET/CT imaging. Target to background ratios (TBR) for the brain lesions were calculated using contralateral cerebellar uptake as background.
Results:
In five treated cases of glioblastoma with suspected recurrence the findings of Ga PSMA-11 PET/CT showed good correlation with that of F-FDG PET/CT scan. Compared to the F-FDG, Ga PSMA-11 PET/CT showed better visualization of the recurrent lesion (presence/absence) owing to its significantly high TBR. Among the five cases evaluated for lesion characterization glioma and atypical meningioma patients showed higher SUVmax in the lesion with Ga PSMA-11 than with F-FDG and converse in cases of lymphoma. TBR was better with Ga PSMA PET/CT in all cases.
Conclusion:
Ga PSMA-11 PET/CT brain imaging is a potentially useful imaging tool in the evaluation of brain lesions. Absence of physiological uptake of Ga PSMA-11 in the normal brain parenchyma results in high TBR values and consequently better visualization of metabolically active disease in brain.
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