Potential Clinical Applications of Dedicated Prostate Positron Emission Tomography

The clinical utility of a dedicated PET tomograph to examine the prostate gland could be of great value to assess high-risk patients in the prebiopsy setting in association with the information pro-vided by MRI in order to reduce the number of bioptic samples needed to reach a final diagnosis. It could better define the location, number, and size of neoplastic sites in intermediate-risk patients eligible for focal therapies. Furthermore, in association with the information provided by the MRI, it could better define the state of the primary disease and presence of extracapsular localizations. Finally, this imaging modality could increase the accuracy of N staging in this common and potentially fatal malignancy.

Automated summary

A dedicated PET tomograph has great clinical utility in examining the prostate gland, particularly in assessing high-risk patients before biopsy. It can reduce the need for biopsy samples, define tumor location, assist in focal therapies, and improve N staging accuracy in this potentially fatal malignancy.