When the cyclotron at UCLH is operational (it may be by now), they should be able to produce their own Choline marker more readily, reliably and hopefully at less cost than rushing it in from an outside source when needed as has been the case hitherto. The PSMA scan does indeed require a marker but this is produced much more easily as stated in this extract from the article I quoted, viz :- "One additional aspect of the presented 68Ga-labelled PSMA ligand is the fact that no (cost-intensive) cyclotron is needed. 68Ga can be extracted from a commercially available 68Ge/68Ga radionuclide generator. In contrast, radiolabelling choline tracers requires isotopes produced by a cyclotron (e.g. 18F or 11C)."
Due largely to the way PCa micro cells can spread often in an non concentrated way, it can be difficult to gain a true picture of cancer spread from scans, even advanced ones. In my case different hospitals took conflicting views on my choline scan. If my PSA continues to rise I will ask for a PSMA scan but doubt UCLH will give me one as I was told back in February that I had had two major treatments and no further radical treatments would be given but only HT if my PSA trend continues. However, when I contacted my RT treating hospital in Heidelberg, they told me they would give me a PSMA scan and would consider some further RT in conjunction with HT depending on results if I aagreed. So this is a possibility. I trust them to do a more reliable 68 Gallium PSMA as they afterall invented it and further RT could give my PCa another set back.
Hope they can do something effective for you Chris, you have been very unlucky in a number of respects
Edited by member 11 Sep 2017 at 21:51
| Reason: Not specified