Detection of clinically significant prostate cancer with 18F-DCFPyL PET/multiparametric MR

Purpose To assess whether F-18-DCFPyL PET/multiparametric (mp)MR contributes to the diagnosis of clinically significant (cs) prostate cancer (PCa) compared to mpMR in patients with suspicion of PCa, or patients being considered for focal ablative therapies (FT). Patients and methods This ethics review board-approved, prospective study included 55 men with suspicion of PCa and negative systematic biopsies or clinically discordant low-risk PCa (n = 21) or those being considered for FT (n = 34) who received F-18-DCFPyL PET/mpMR. Each modality, PET, mpMR, and PET/MR (using the PROMISE classification), was assessed independently. All suspicious lesions underwent PET/MR-ultrasound fusion biopsies. Results There were 45/55 patients (81.8%) that had histologically proven PCa and 41/55 (74.5%) were diagnosed with csPCa. Overall, 61/114 lesions (53.5%) identified on any modality were malignant; 49/61 lesions (80.3%) were csPCa. On lesion-level analysis, for detection of csPCa, the sensitivity of PET was higher than that of mpMR and PET/MR (86% vs 67% and 69% [p = 0.027 and 0.041, respectively]), but at a lower specificity (32% vs 85% and 86%, respectively [p < 0.001]). The performance of MR and PET/MR was comparable. For identification of csPCa in PI-RADS >= 3 lesions, the AUC (95% CI) for PET, mpMR, and PET/MR was 0.75 (0.65-0.86), 0.69 (0.56-0.82), and 0.78 (0.67-0.89), respectively. The AUC for PET/MR was significantly larger than that of mpMR (p = 0.04). Conclusion PSMA PET detects more csPCa than mpMR, but at low specificity. The performance PET/MR is better than mpMR for detection of csPCa in PI-RADS >= 3 lesions. Clinical registration NCT 03149861

Automated summary

F-18-DCFPyL PET/mpMR contributes to the diagnosis of clinically significant prostate cancer compared to mpMR, especially in lesions with PI-RADS >= 3. PSMA PET has higher sensitivity but lower specificity for detecting csPCa compared to mpMR.