Review of commonly used prostate specific PET tracers used in prostate cancer imaging in current clinical practice

F-18-Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) underperforms in detecting prostate cancer (PCa) due to inherent characteristics of primary and metastatic tumors, including relatively low rate of glucose utilization. Consequently, alternate PCa PET imaging agents targeting other aspects of PCa cell biology have been developed for clinical practice. The most common dedicated PET imaging tracers include Ga-68/F-18 prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA), C-11-Choline, and F-18-fluciclovine (AxuminTM). This review will describe how these agents target specific inherent characteristics of PCa and explore the current literature for these agents for both primary and recurrent PCa, comparing the advantages and limitations of each tracer. Both C-11-Choline and F-18-Fluciclovine PET have been shown to detect nodal and osseous disease at higher rates compared to FDG-PET but offer no additional benefit in detecting prostate disease, especially in primary staging. As a result, PSMA PET, specifically Ga-68-PSMA-11, has emerged as a key imaging option for both primary and recurrent cancer. PSMA PET may be more sensitive than MRI at the local level and more sensitive than C-11-Choline and F-18-Fluciclovine PET for distant disease. Furthermore, compared to C-11-Choline and F-18-Fluci-clovine PET, Ga-68-PSMA-11 PET has higher detection rates at low PSA levels (<2 ng/dL). With improved delineation of disease, PSMA imaging has influenced treatment planning; radiation fields can be narrowed, and patients with isolated or oligo-metastatic disease can be spared systemic therapy. The retrospective nature of many of the studies describing these PCa imaging modalities complicates their assessment and comparison.

Automated summary

This article discusses the advantages and limitations of PET imaging tracers Ga-68/F-18 PSMA, C-11-Choline, and F-18-fluciclovine for prostate cancer. PSMA PET shows higher sensitivity in detecting primary and recurrent cancer, influencing treatment planning by improving disease delineation.