PSMA PET Scan for Prostate cancer Test, Procedure and Cost

In general, the PSMA PET Scans use PSMA (18F-DCFPyL) that have been shown to be highly effective at the PSA levels that are above 0.2ng/mL.

Also it is seen, that higher the PSA level (i.e. at restaging patients), the more likely would a PSMA PET Scan be needed to further detect along with identifying any recurrent prostate cancer.

The PSMA PET scans are not considered to be perfect. There is also a small chance that there is a  missed diagnosis due to the fact that a small percentage of prostate cancers usually don’t express PSMA and can’t be detected by the PSMA PET scan.

The Men who are seen to be initially diagnosed with the prostate cancer along with the risk of any metastic disease.

The men who were seen to be previously treated (typically with either radiation therapy or even prostatectomy)

 Moreover, individuals who have further developed any biochemical recurrence as can be seen by rising PSA (i.e. prostate specific antigen).

The PSMA is used as the phenotypic biomarker with the positron emission tomography (PET) imaging options. The PSMA could be over- expressed in cases of metastatic prostate cancer, which is relative to the normal tissue thus, is present in >80% of the men suffering from prostate cancer.

The prostate biopsy is considered to be one of the most accurate ways to diagnose a prostate cancer. But since it is considered as an invasive procedure, the other screening methods or procedures are going to be used first.

Drinking plenty of the fluids after your scan could help in flushing it out from the body. Moreover, as a precaution, you might also be advised to avoid any prolonged close contact with the pregnant women, or babies or even young children for a few hours after the PET scan, as you could be slightly radioactive even during this time.

Although low to even moderate PSMA avidity can be expected when further evaluating the non prostatic bone-related diseases, there are also some lesions that might only appear with a higher uptake, that could further lead to an erroneous diagnosis (or metastases), this is particularly seen in the studies without any morphological correlation, for which a further investigation (MRI and/or biopsy) may be required.

The usual scan times for the most PSMA PET Scan in patients have been reported as 10-12 minutes (depending on the patient height).

The PSMA PET/CT scans for which the prostate cancer could provide better care for the men who were initially diagnosed with the disease of prostate cancer or even for the men who have been previously treated experienced the recurrence in cancer.

In both these cases, the PSMA PET/CT would be better able to detect and locate the extent of the cancer in the patient’s body.

The PSMA seems to be also expressed in cancers (e.g. conventional renal cell, transitional cell of the bladder, the testicular-i.e. Embryonal, neuroendocrine, colon, and breast), which is specifically in neo vasculature associated with the cancers.

Prostate cancer is a very common cancer that occurs in the men's prostate gland. It is highly treatable at its early stage. There are various diagnostic techniques to diagnose prostate cancer. PSMA PET scan is one of the highly effective diagnostic techniques for prostate cancer diagnosis.

Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) PET scan is a medical imaging technique that aids in evaluating whether prostate cancer has spread outside the prostate gland or not. This imaging technique combines a type of sugar as a radioactive tracer with the specialized camera to obtain detailed images of the prostate gland. The scan specifically targets the prostate-specific membrane antigen, a protein found in high concentrations in prostate cancer cells. The radioactive tracer bins to the PSMA and lights up on the scan.