ABSTRACT
Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of the balloon spacer when used to reduce the radiation dose delivered to the rectum in prostate cancer patients undergoing external beam radiotherapy. Method: A single center retrospective analysis including 75 PC patients with localized T1-T3a disease who received balloon spacer followed by EBRT. Pre- and post-implantation computed tomography (CT) scans were utilized for treatment planning for standard EBRT (78-81 Gy in 1.8-2 Gy fractions). Rectal dosimetry was assessed using DVHs, and toxicities were graded with CTCAE v.4. Results: A median (IQR) prostate-rectum separation resulted in 1.6 cm (1.4-2.0) post balloon spacer implantation. Overall, 90.6 % (68/75) of patients had a clinically significant 25 % relative reduction in the rectal with a median relative reduction of 91.8 % (71.2-98.6 %) at rV70. Three (4.0 %) patients reported mild procedural adverse events, anal discomfort and dysuria. Within 90 days post-implantation, five patients (6.67 %) and 1 patient (1.33 %) reported grade 1 and grade 2 rectal toxicities (anal pain, constipation, diarrhea and hemorrhoids). Genitourinary (GU) grade 1 toxicity was reported in 37 patients (49.33 %), with only one patient (1.33 %) experiencing grade 2 GU toxicity. No grade ≥ 3 toxicity was reported. Conclusion: Balloon spacer implantation effectively increased prostate-rectum separation and associated with dosimetric gains EBRT for PC stage T1-T3a. Further controlled studies are required to ascertain whether this spacer allows for radiotherapy dose escalation and minimizes gastrointestinal (GI) toxicity.
ABSTRACT
The 68Ga-prostate-specific membrane antigen ( 68Ga-PSMA) has been recently developed to be used, as a ligand, in positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) prostate cancer imaging, to detect prostate disease. The main objective of this review was to collect data and findings from other studies and articles to assess, theoretically, if 68GA-PSMA PET/CT is a more appropriate prostate cancer diagnostic technique in comparison with others available such as CT, 18F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose PET/CT, or 18F-fluoromethylcholine ( 18F-choline) PET/CT. For that purpose, PubMed, the online scientific articles' database, was consulted where the keywords "PSMA" and "PET" were used to find relevant articles. The clinicaltrials.gov, clinical trials' database, was also consulted where the keywords "68Ga-PSMA" and "prostate" were used to search clinical trials. Based on the reviewed scientific literature, several studies were conducted to assess and compare the 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT detection rate in prostate cancer with other available techniques. One of those studies, conducted by Giesel et al., concluded, within study sample, that 75% of patients with lymph nodes detected by 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT would have not been identified using other conventional morphological criteria based techniques. In Eiber et al.'s study, 68Ga-PSMA PET detected prostatic disease findings in 67% of patients with prostate-specific antigen levels <1 ng/mL, when compared with choline-based PET that presented detection rates between 19% and 36%. In Bluemel et al.'s study, 68Ga-PSMA identified positive prostatic disease in 43.8% of the patients with negative findings in F-choline PET/CT. Findings from this review demonstrate that 68Ga-PSMA PET/C is more effective in detecting metastases, lymph nodes, and recurrent prostate cancer when compared to 18F-choline-based PET/CT and CT. 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT presents also more imaging contrast and can be more cost-effective. 68Ga-PSMA has already been subjected to first-in-human trials, and it is now being tested in Phase II and III trials.
