⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT for monitoring response to ¹⁷⁷Lu-PSMA-617 radioligand therapy in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Abstract

To evaluate the use of ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT for monitoring response to ¹⁷⁷Lu-617 PSMA radioligand therapy in patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Patients from the University Hospital Bonn and the University Hospital Aachen were retrospectively reviewed for this study. We included 48 patients with mCRPC who were treated with ¹⁷⁷Lu-PSMA-617 and whose records included ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT imaging before the first and after the third or fourth treatment cycle. A treatment response based on ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT was defined according to a modified version of the PERCIST criteria. A decline in PSA level of ≥50% was considered the reference standard. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and ROC curves were calculated, and patient survival times in relation to the PET results were also analysed. ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT had a sensitivity of about 85% and a specificity of between 55% and 65%. The negative and positive predictive values ranged between 70% and 78%. The fitted ROC area was 0.70. The survival time was about 19.6 months in patients with a treatment response, while nonresponders had a survival time of about 15.9 months. However, this difference between the groups was not statistically significant. Our results indicate that ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT could be a useful tool for the evaluation of response to ¹⁷⁷Lu-PSMA-617 radioligand therapy within a theranostic framework.