New Radiotracer May Improve Prostate Cancer Imaging

No definitive technique currently exists for imaging prostate cancer for purposes of initial staging and restaging. A new study in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine has introduced a promising radiotracer for imaging prostate cancer with PET/CT.

The synthetic tracer called anti-1-amino-3-18F-fluorocyclobutane-1-carboxylic acid (anti-18F-FACBC), had excellent uptake for both primary and metastatic prostate cancer on initial staging and uptatke in recurrent prostate cancer within the prostate bed, lymph nodes and bone. The authors concluded that use of anti-¹⁸F-FACBC PET/CT could "improve diagnostic imaging of prostate carcinoma both before and after therapy."

The study involved imaging of 15 patients; the authors are designing a larger cohort study to establish the clinical utility of anti-¹⁸F-FACBC PET/CT in imaging primary and secondary suspected recurrent prostate cancer. The article appears in the January 2007 issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Lead author is David M. Schuster of the Department of Radiology at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.