PSMA-PET similar to MRI, superior to CT for liver cancer diagnosis: Study

For this purpose, the researchers prospectively recruited patients with suspected or treated hepatocellular carcinoma from a tertiary hospital outpatient clinic. A PSMA PET/CT was performed in addition to routine surveillance imaging as recommended by the multidisciplinary team. Clinical and imaging characteristics were compared over a follow-up period of up to 12 months.

Key findings of the study include:

• In a cohort of 19 patients with known HCC or suspected recurrent HCC, the efficacy of PSMA PET/CT was similar to MRI for the detection of hepatocellular carcinoma, with a sensitivity of 91% and a specificity of 70% and a sensitivity of 87% and a specificity of 73% for PSMA PET/CT and MRI, respectively.
• PSMA PET/CT had a higher negative predictive value of 90%.

To conclude, PSMA is shown to have promising equivalence in performance in the relatively sizeable single-centre study, and its role should be further evaluated in multi-centre prospective trials. The study showed PSMA PET/CT to be just as sensitive as MRI in detecting HCC and superior to CT.

"Future studies are underway, including phase 2 studies that will examine the utility of PSMA PET/MRI as a combined imaging modality and may continue to shed more light on the use of PSMA PET for HCC detection," the researchers wrote in their study. "PSMA-positivity may provide options for theranostic approaches using molecular markers linked with radionuclide therapies."

Reference:

Wong, V.C.K.; Yip, J.; Fragomeli, V.; Weltman, M.; Loh, H.; Le, K.; Nguyen, D.; Bui, C.; Mansberg, R. Comparison between PSMA PET/CT and MRI for Characterizing Hepatocellular carcinoma: A Real-World Study. Tomography 2023, 9, 130-138. https://doi.org/10.3390/tomography9010011