Clinical Research Directory

Delayed Pelvic Imaging With [68]Ga-PSMA PET/CT in a Patient With High-risk Prostate Cancer.

Sponsor: IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna

Summary

Recent evidence suggests that both standard-time and delayed-time \[⁶⁸Ga\]Ga-PSMA PET acquisitions can reveal clinically relevant findings, and neither phase should be excluded a priori in routine practice. This study evaluates a streamlined dual-phase protocol consisting of: * A standard whole-body PET/CT acquisition performed 60 minutes after radiotracer administration. * A delayed pelvic PET-only acquisition performed 90 minutes post-injection, reconstructed using the attenuation-correction CT (CT/AC) obtained from the initial whole-body scan. Because the prostate gland and pelvic lymph nodes exhibit minimal physiological mobility, accurate PET-CT anatomical correspondence can be maintained through careful patient repositioning, without repeating the CT scan. The main advantage of this protocol is a reduction in patient radiation exposure, as the delayed phase does not require a second CT scan. It also reduces in-department time and maintains diagnostic quality of PET interpretation, provided that the PET-CT alignment remains acceptable. This method may additionally enhance workflow efficiency in the Nuclear Medicine Unit by allowing early identification-based on predefined clinical parameters-of patients most likely to benefit from delayed pelvic imaging.

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