Abstract
The study aimed to summarize clinical characteristics associated with Gallium-68-prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography/computed tomography ((68)Ga-PSMA PET/CT) scans as patients were restaged for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) relapse after radical prostatectomy (RP) or external beam radiotherapy (EBRT). Our analyses included multiple cox regression analyses. The study evaluated 95 patients with rising values of PSAs after RP and after EBRT. Sixty 63% of patients had a positive (68)Ga-PSMA PET/CT scan. Twelve patients (13%) had a positive site in the prostate bed, 29 patients (30%) had a positive site in the regional lymph nodes, and 19 (20%) had positive sites in distant organs. After four years follow-up, 21 patients (22%) died. Using multiple Cox regression analyses, the number of positive sites on the (68)Ga-PSMA PET/CT scan significantly predicted overall survival (OS) (p = 0.0001), whereas risk score and regional locations of the positive sites were not significant in the multiple Cox regression analyses. Our study indicates that the specific findings of (68)Ga-PSMA PET/CT scans are important because detailed findings of the scans predict the outcome after salvage treatment of patients with PSA relapse examined with (68)Ga-PSMA PET/CT scans.