Dr. Jain on Novel Imaging Technologies for Prostate Cancer

Manoj K. Jain, MD, nuclear medicine specialist, radiologist, Mayo Clinic, discusses new imaging modalities to detect disease in patients with prostate cancer.

The conventional imaging modalities that have been used for imaging of prostate cancer for diagnosis as well as biochemical recurrence in the past are MRI and CT scan of the body and bone scans. These have lower sensitivity, especially when the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level and the size of the lesions are small, explains Jain. Therefore, different imaging technologies need to be considered, especially in molecular imaging where much smaller lesions at lower PSA levels are able to be detected.

The newer imaging tools that are being used in PET imaging, which are FDA approved, are choline C-11 PET scan and 18F-Fluciclovine PET/CT scan. These help to visualize local recurrence as well as small metastatic disease. Therefore, the sensitivity of these tracers is higher and is more specific than the conventional imaging methods.