PSMA uptake on 68Ga-PSMA-11-PET/CT positively correlates with prostate cancer aggressiveness

BACKGROUND: Conflicting results have been revealed on the relationship between PSMA uptake values (SUVs) on prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) and prostate cancer (PCa) aggressiveness. This study is to validate the relationship between SUVs with PCa aggressiveness and its role in evaluation of clinically significant PCa (csPCa) and risk stratification. METHODS: We retrospectively enrolled 51 patients who underwent 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT (PET/CT) before radical prostatectomy (RP). PET/CT results were corrected with whole mount histology. The relationship between SUVs and aggressiveness related indictors including Gleason score, T stage, initial PSA and tumor size were analyzed. The cutoff value for detection of overall PCa, csPCa and intermediate/high-risk PCa were calculated by receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis. RESULTS: Both SUVmax and SUVmean positively correlated with Gleason score (SUVmax Spearman r=0.546 Pmean Spearman r=0.359 Pmax Spearman r=0.568 Pmean Spearman r=0.529 Pmax Spearman r=0.635 Pmean Spearman r=0.590 Pmax 17.49±10.50 vs 9.90±8.7, Pmean 17.49±10.50 vs 9.90±8.7, Pmax (3.8) and SUVmean (2.8) for overall PCa detection. ROC analysis showed that csPCa and intermediate/high risk PCa had the same cutoff on both SUVmax (8.4) and SUVmean (6.8). CONCLUSIONS: PSMA uptake on PSMA PET/CT positively correlated with Gleason score, T stage, initial PSA and tumor volume. Both SUVmax and SUVmean can be applied as parameters for csPCa detection and risk classification.