The effect of androgen deprivation therapy on 68GA-PSMA-tracer uptake in nonmetastatic prostate cancer patients.

22 Background: To evaluate the effect of neoadjuvant androgen deprivation treatment (ADT) on prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) tracer uptake demonstrated in 68Ga-PSMA-positron emission tomography (PET/CT) in non-metastatic hormone-naïve prostate cancer patients. Methods: The clinical data of 108 prostate cancer patients who received neoadjuvant ADT were retrospectively analyzed. All patients had a baseline 68Ga-PSMA-PET/CT scan and a second scan was delivered median of 2.9 months after initiation of ADT. Patients with clinical and radiological evidence of distant metastasis were excluded from the study. The maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of primary tumor (SUVp) and metastatic lymph nodes (SUVln) as well as PSA response were assessed between pre- and post-ADT 68Ga-PSMA-PET/CT scans. Results: The median SUVp and SUVln were 14.0 (range, 4.9 – 78.4) and 13.2 (range, 3.6 – 64.5), respectively. There was a significant moderate correlation between baseline serum PSA and SUVp (Spearman = 0.513, p<0.001). There were significant decreases in post-treatment serum PSA, SUVp, and SUVp. A decrease in SUVp was seen in 91 patients (84%) with a median value of 66% (range, 5% – 100%), while 17 patients (16%) had no change in or an increase in PSMA tracer uptake with a median value of 24% (range, 0% – 198%). Patients with Gleason score (GS) of 7 had significantly higher metabolic response rates compared to other patients. The disease progression was significantly higher only in patients with GS > 7 disease compared to GS 7 disease. The PSA response to ADT was lowest in patients with ISUP high-grade tumors. A total of 16 patients (15%) had progressive disease, and in 9 patients (8%), radiotherapy decisions were modified according to post-treatment 68Ga-PSMA-PET/CT scans. Conclusions: The current study includes the largest number of patients analyzed to date and demonstrates that ADT causes a significant decrease in serum PSA values and SUVp and SUVln. The authors demonstrate that 68Ga-PSMA-PET/CT may be used as a quantitative imaging modality after neoadjuvant ADT in hormone-naïve non-metastatic PC patients.