50/50 chance to get a free PSMA PET scan at UCLA if you are unfavorable intermediate or high-risk and plan on having radiotherapy

[Tall_Allen]

It would normally cost almost $3,000 if you paid out of pocket, but UCLA is running a clinical trial to see if getting a DCFPyL PET/CT improves outcomes in unfavorable-intermediate and high-risk men who will be getting treatment. If you are randomized to the PET scan, it is free (transportation not included). If not, you just get whatever imaging and radiation your doctor and you think is appropriate. Here's what they say:

• ONE phone call, ONE email, and a 50/50 chance of having a FREE PSMA PET/CT scan at UCLA.

• Patient is consented remotely by phone + email.

• Patients come to UCLA ONLY for their PSMA PET/CT scan and ONLY if randomized to the PSMA PET arm.

• If randomized to the control group, patients cannot get a PSMA scan at UCLA.

• Patients do NOT see any radiation oncologist at UCLA.

• In both arms, definitive RT is done at the discretion of the referring radiation oncologist at their institution.

• In both arms, any other imaging is allowed (such as Fluciclovine [Axumin]) at the discretion of the referring radiation oncologist. [note: Axumin is only approved for recurrent patients]

• Follow-up is done remotely by the UCLA nuclear medicine research team (email /fax)

Study coordinator contact:

Kiara Booker, [e-mail]

Phone: [phone]

clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show...

[JPnSD]

So this stipulation gives me pause:

• If randomized to the control group, patients cannot get a PSMA scan at UCLA.

Does this mean I can never get a PSMA scan done at UCLA under ANY circumstances (pay for it myself in future)....or if referred by ANY doctor? That I would need to travel to another location in the U.S. to get one???

[Tall_Allen in reply to JPnSD]

You don't qualify for this trial. It's only for men with localized high-risk or unfavorable intermediate-risk prostate cancer.

If you hadn't been treated, you are agreeing to not get a PSMA before treatment anywhere. If you get it elsewhere, you are out of the trial. That's the whole point of the trial - to see if that added info makes a difference in outcomes.

[JPnSD in reply to Tall_Allen]

Any idea when PSMA tests might get approved for Medicare coverage? It seems to be continually kicked down the road for approval.

[Tall_Allen in reply to JPnSD]

I hope soon.

[Wings-of-Eagles]

Thanks for posting that, I'll tell some friends. Look like I would not qualify, as I am Stage 4?

Wings aka Dan

[Tall_Allen in reply to Wings-of-Eagles]

Right. You would have to pay for it.

[Hidden]

I noticed this in the exclusion criteria:

"Concurrent or prior surgery or systemic therapy for PCa at the time of randomization"

I would think that that rules out most of us here.

[Tall_Allen in reply to Hidden]

No. I didn't post this on an advanced cancer forum. Most folks on this forum are pre-treatment. That's why I wrote "unfavorable intermediate or high-risk" in the headline.