Novel tracer for prostate cancer improves sensitivity

A new radiotracer, FACBC, may help identify presence or absence of focal neoplastic involvement in patients with prostate cancer, according to work conducted at Emory University. Researchers using the tracer demonstrated its uptake in both primary and metastatic prostate cancer on initial staging, as well as in recurrent cancer within the prostate bed, lymph nodes, and bone. The findings were reported in the January issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Dr. David M. Schuster and colleagues evaluated nine patients with a recent diagnosis of prostate cancer and six with suspected recurrence. In eight of the newly diagnosed patients who underwent dynamic scanning, visual analysis correctly identified the presence or absence of focal neoplastic involvement in 40 of 48 prostate sextants. Pelvic nodal status correlated with FACBC findings in seven of nine patients and was indeterminate in two.

In all four patients with proven recurrence, researchers identified disease. In three of these patients, indium-111 ProstaScint had no significant uptake at nodal and skeletal foci.