Correlations of 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT in the initial staging of prostate cancer patients.

OBJECTIVE: Ga-PSMA) uptake patterns in the prostate gland. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ga-PSMA PET/CT imaging for staging between July 2017 and March 2019 were enrolled in this retrospective study. Maximum standardized uptake values (SUVmax) were determined by manually placing the region of interest to the primary tumor in the prostate gland. Patients were divided into groups according to their prostate-specific antigen (PSA) values, International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) grade groups, Gleason Scores (GS), D'Amico risk stratification criteria and the presence of metastasis. Mann Whitney U test was used in the comparison of two groups of data. In multivariate analysis, logistic regression was used to determine independent predictors for the presence of metastasis. RESULTS: Ga-PSMA uptake on only one lobe (7.9%) (P<0.001).The median SUVmax of tumours in patients with metastasis was statistically significantly higher than in patients with no metastasis. In multivariate analysis; bilobar involvement, PSA value 20ng/mL, prostate SUVmax value 8.6 and GS 8 were determined as independent predictors for the presence of metastasis. CONCLUSION: The strong correlation between PSA values and/or Gleason score/Grade and SUVmax values suggests that the SUVmax value of the prostate gland might be a valuable determinant in risk classifications.