Imaging scans

In the last decade an increasing number of hospitals have the 3 Tesla MRI scanners which produce better defined images and also more hospitals are providing a more comprehensive mpMRI whether using 3Tesla or 1.5 Tesla scanners. A more recent innovation is the 68 Gallium PSMA scan available presently at very few facilities in the UK. It has been said that this can help identify smaller deposits of cancer throughout the body and lead to a change of the treatment plan in a very significant number of men. It can't identify finely dispersed cancer cells and does not work on about 8% of men who do not express sufficient PSMA. There is at least one new scan being trialed that shows promise of finding smaller tumours.

"In summary, the Oxford PSMA symposium 2018 brought together clinicians from around the globe who share a common enthusiasm for PSMA-related technologies that promise to revolutionise prostate cancer management in the near future. Common themes included the use of PSMA in staging, therapeutics and intra-operative guidance. The message from our overseas guests, both European and Antipodean, was that PSMA-based imaging is increasingly part of routine care in the management of prostate cancer and definite benefits are seen, particularly in regard to accurate staging and identification of very early recurrence. While we in the UK are a little behind the curve when it comes to adoption of this increasingly established technology, we are hopeful of increasing the use of this technology in the NHS in order to rationalise appropriate treatment, reduce futile expenditure and ensure gold-standard management of men with prostate cancer."

The above is an extract from https://www.bjuinternational.com/bjui-blog/psma-at-the-cutting-edge-of-prostate-cancer-treatment-report-from-a-psma-symposium-convened-at-the-university-of-oxford/

Notwithstanding the foregoing, I think it unlikely that the present PSMA scans will be used much in most men initially but more where there is a suspected recurrence.  However, ongoing improvements in MRI are likely to provide more accurate staging.  My initial staging was upgraded from T2A to T3A after MRI.

Edited by member 09 Dec 2019 at 22:30  | Reason: Not specified

Hey ,

Although advancements have been made in imaging in the last 10 years or so , it doesn’t necessarily mean those advancements are in the quality of imaging, for example it could be the acquisition time of scan in mri  or the radiation dose used to achieve the scan  In ct. Other advances would be the used of diffusion weighted imaging in MRI. 

prostate cancer goes to bones , bone mets could be picked up on a variety of imaging modalities - ct , mri and X-ray all show bone mets so there is little chance that even 10 years ago they would have been completely missed. 

I know all this because I am diagnostic radiographer it’s my job to know. But since jan 19 I am also the daughter of a dad with  prostate cancer with bone mets. Now that’s been a hard learning curve and a bitter one to swallow. My advice would be order the pack from here it’s really informative, join your local Maggies centre - my dad refused to go to the support group ( he now goes every week and has a wee group of new pals who phone if he doesn’t make a week to see he’s okay!)ha and use your local Macmillan contacts. 

good luck on your journey and remember to check it here 💕💕

Amy