This new scan finds prostate cancer spread better than old ones
Prospective comparison of 18F-PSMA-1007 PET/CT, whole-body MRI and CT in primary nodal staging of unfavourable intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Whole-body MRI, often considered the gold standard for soft tissue imaging, had a 55% false-negative rate for lymph node metastases.
MRI is widely trusted for detecting tumors and soft tissue changes. Finding it misses more than half of cancerous nodes in prostate cancer contradicts its assumed superiority over CT.
Practical Takeaways
If you or a loved one has high-risk prostate cancer, ask your oncologist: 'Can we do a PSMA PET/CT scan for staging?' — especially if MRI or CT came back negative.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Whole-body MRI, often considered the gold standard for soft tissue imaging, had a 55% false-negative rate for lymph node metastases.
MRI is widely trusted for detecting tumors and soft tissue changes. Finding it misses more than half of cancerous nodes in prostate cancer contradicts its assumed superiority over CT.
Practical Takeaways
If you or a loved one has high-risk prostate cancer, ask your oncologist: 'Can we do a PSMA PET/CT scan for staging?' — especially if MRI or CT came back negative.
Publication
Journal
European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
Year
2021
Authors
S. Malaspina, M. Anttinen, P. Taimen, I. Jambor, M. Sandell, I. Rinta-Kiikka, S. Kajander, J. Schildt, E. Saukko, T. Noponen, J. Saunavaara, P. Dean, R. Sequeiros, H. Aronen, J. Kemppainen, M. Seppänen, P. Boström, O. Ettala
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Claims (6)
A special kind of scan called 18F-PSMA-1007 PET/CT can find small cancer spots in the pelvis that regular CT or MRI scans miss—especially those smaller than 8 mm—because it sees things differently than just looking at shape and size.
For about 1 in 4 men with cancer spread to the pelvic lymph nodes, a special PET scan called 18F-PSMA-1007 found the cancer when regular MRI and CT scans didn’t see anything — meaning this new scan might catch things others miss.
A special kind of scan called 18F-PSMA-1007 PET/CT is really good at telling apart cancerous lymph nodes in the pelvis from harmless ones in men with high-risk prostate cancer — it hardly ever makes a mistake and is just as accurate as MRI or CT scans.
A new kind of scan called 18F-PSMA-1007 PET/CT is much better at finding tiny cancer spread in the pelvis than older scans like MRI or CT — it catches cancer in nearly 9 out of 10 men where other scans miss it, and it can see really small tumors that regular scans can’t even spot.
Sometimes, a full-body MRI scan might miss a serious problem, making doctors think everything’s fine when it’s not — and that delay could lead to really bad health results.