Plenary Session 5 “Nuclear medicine in urology: Lessons learnt and new horizons” of the EAU Section of Urological Imaging (ESUI) meeting addressed the current pressing challenges of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) in prostate cancer (PCa).
Prof. Georg Salomon (DE) and Dr. Jochen Walz (FR) chaired the session, which also covered topics on the enhancement of access to radiotheranostics for cancer care through the Oncidium initiative, as well as the different tracers for various indications in every cancer type.
In her presentation, “Current challenges of PSMA PET/CT in prostate cancer”, Assoc. Prof. Daniela Oprea-Lager (NL) cited the EAU Guidelines on Prostate Cancer, which stated PSMA PET/CT is more accurate for staging than CT and bone scan for high-risk disease but to date, no outcome data exists to inform subsequent management.
One of the recommendations of the EAU Guidelines with a “Strong” strength rating was when using PSMA PET or whole-body MRI to increase sensitivity, be aware of the lack of outcome data of subsequent treatment changes.
Assoc. Prof. Oprea-Lager concluded, “We cannot ignore modern imaging techniques and continue re(staging) and treating disease as we did in the era of conventional imaging.” She added that clinical outcomes such as overall survival, disease recurrence, and quality of life should be proven first. Learning how to interpret modern imaging properly and how to treat patients is imperative.
View the session recap and watch the full presentations on the EMUC23 Resource Centre.
