Relationships between serum PSA levels, Gleason scores and results of 68Ga-PSMAPET/CT in patients with recurrent prostate cancer

Aim: To investigate the relationship between serum PSA level, Gleason score of PCa and the outcomes of Ga⁶⁸-PSMA PET/CT in patients with recurrent PCa. Methods: A total of 109 consecutive patients (median age 71 years; range 48–89 years) who had PSA recurrence after RP and/or hormonotherapy and/or radiotherapy were included in this study. Local recurrences, lymph node metastasis (pelvic, abdominal and/or supradiaphragmatic), bone metastases (oligometastatic/multimetastatic) and other metastatic sites (lung, liver, brain, etc) were documented. Results: In 91(83.4%) patients at least one lesion characteristic for PCa was detected by⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT. The median serum total PSA (tPSA) was 6.5 (0.2–640) ng/ml.There was a significant difference between ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT positive and negative patients in terms of serum total PSA value. No statistical significance was found between positive and negative ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT findings in terms of Gleason score. Local recurrence was detected in 56 patients. whereas lymph node metastases were demonstrated in 46 patients. Pelvic nodal disease was the most frequent presentation followed by abdominal and supradiaphragmaticnodal involvement. Bone metastases [oligometastasis, (n = 20); multimetastasis, (n = 35)⦌ were also detected in 55 patients. In the ROC analysis for the study cohort, the optimal cut-off value of total serum PSA was determined as 0.67 ng/ml for distinguishing between positive and negative ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT images, with an area under curve of 0.952 (95% CI 0.911–0.993). Conclusions: ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT was found to be an effective tool for the detection of recurrent PCa. Even though no relationship was detected between the GS and ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT findings, serum total PSA values may be used for estimating the likelihood of positive ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT results.