Gallium-68 PET/CT Scan

[Prellch]

I am 80 and was diagnosed with prostate cancer (Gleason 9) with focal neuroendocrine differentiation when I was 76. I’ve had chemo, radiation and Lupron since that time and am doing ok.

I am going to be due for another PET/CT scan and was wondering if

anyone is familiar with a Gallium-68 PET/CT Scan which was approved 6/1/16?

I just found out about it?

Thank you,

Chuck

[MelaniePaul]

Hi Chuck.

I think this is the scan that my husband was going to get had we gone to Germany to do LU177 therapy. It is a new PET scan where the imaging is much clearer than on all previous scans.

Mel.

[AlanLawrenson in reply to MelaniePaul]

Mel. My brother has just had two Lutetium 177 treatments in Sydney. They have cleared all but one of about 30 mets. Just fantastic. How did your husband fare in Germany? I note at two clinical trials in the USA are recruiting men.

[MelaniePaul in reply to AlanLawrenson]

Wow, that's wonderful, Alan.

My husband never did the LU177 therapy. He was going to do it at the beginning of this year for his bone mets. But then we got the scan done that showed mets in the liver - I think they call those poorely differentiated tumors - and they said that LU177 does not work very well for mets in the liver.

Can I ask where your brother's mets were? Were they bone mets?

Mel.

[Chask]

The Gallium 68 scan is capable of picking up metasteses smaller than most other scans. The scan itself is no big deal. Takes about an hour in total. First you have to be infused with the Ga68 which in my case was intravenously in the arm. Took about half an hour, then the scan itself which is just like a CT scan in the "doughnut" machine. That again took about half an hour, maybe less.

The real issue is what you do about the results. If it detects just one or two bone mets, then it is possible to have those treated with SBRT (targeted radiation), but it is likely more will show up later. If there are multiple mets than systemic treatment like Lupron, is probably more appropriate.

In my case there were no bone mets detected, but cancer cells still in the prostate bed, so having had RP and RT, I am now back on ADT.

There are still further treatment options beyond that, including the LU177 treatments mentioned above, so a long way to go yet.

Best of luck

Chas

[Prellch in reply to Chask]

Thank you very much for the information Chas

[Nuray]

The gallium 68 pet scan is advanced imaging can detect cancer as low as two microns where as before it all used to pick up eight to ten microns so it's more advanced in that manner? Not many country's have it?so count your self lucky..Nuray 👍

[Prellch in reply to Nuray]

Thank you very much Nuray for the info.

[ctarleton]

>...

anyone ... familiar with a Gallium-68 PET/CT Scan which was approved 6/1/16?

The FDA approval of 6/1/2016 was not for a prostate cancer indication. It was for a kit to be used in imaging for another rare cancer, "somatostatin receptor positive neuroendocrine tumors (NETs)."

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Netspot, the first kit for the preparation of gallium Ga 68 dotatate injection, a radioactive diagnostic agent for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. This radioactive probe will help locate tumors in adult and pediatric patients with the rare condition, somatostatin receptor positive neuroendocrine tumors (NETs)."

See:

fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom...

Gallium-68 PET/CT Scans have, however, been available for prostate cancer evaluation in the USA at a few specialized centers, often in conjunction with imaging Clinical Trials pending future FDA approval(s) for prostate cancer imaging & staging.

(I had one in August 2016 at UCSF. At the time I was castrate resistant with a PSA rising up through 60, and the results showed about 10 "hot spots" involving widely separated bones and lymph nodes. In my individual case, they were able to compare it to regular CT/MRI for the purposes of the Trial to test the usefulness/effectiveness of Ga68 PSMA PET, but it did not result in a significant restaging or a change to my overall treatment plan, which remained "systemic" in nature. I went on to do Provenge, and later, Xtandi, to which I am currently responding very well.)

Charles