For patients with prostate cancer, gallium 68 (68Ga)-prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-11 positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) has higher sensitivity and specificity for detecting bone metastases than technetium 99m-methyl diphosphonate (99mTc-MDP) bone scintigraphy (BS), according to a meta-analysis published online April 20 in the American Journal of Roentgenology.
Gege Zhao, M.D., and Bin Ji, M.D., from the China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University in Changchun, China, compared the diagnostic performance of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT to that of 99mTc-MDP BS for the detection of bone metastases in patients with prostate cancer in a systematic review. Six studies were included with 546 patients.
The researchers found that the pooled sensitivity and specificity were 98 and 97 percent versus 83 and 68 percent for 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT versus 99mTc-MDP BS, with areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.99 and 0.85, respectively. In an analysis of five of the studies with 408 patients, 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT correctly identified bone metastases in 22.3 percent of the patients who had a negative 99mTc-MDP BS result, while bone metastases were correctly identified by 99mTc-MDP BS in only 1.9 percent of 210 patients with negative 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT.
“Given the findings, in patients with prostate cancer who have undergone 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT, 99mTc-MDP BS is highly unlikely to be additive in identifying bone metastases,” the authors write.
Source: HealthDay News
