Value of (11)C-Choline PET/CT-Based Multi-Metabolic Parameter Combination in Distinguishing Early-Stage Prostate Cancer From Benign Prostate Diseases

PURPOSE: The most common disadvantage of (11)C-choline positron emission tomography and computed tomography (PET/CT) in diagnosing early-stage prostate cancer (PCa) is its poor sensitivity. In spite of many efforts, this imaging modality lacks the ideal parameter of choline metabolism for the diagnosis of PCa, and the single metabolic parameter, that is, maximal standardized uptake value (SUVmax), based on this imaging modality is insufficient. (11)C-choline PET/CT-based multi-metabolic parameter combination can help break this limitation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Before surgery, SUVmax of choline, which is the most common metabolic parameter of (11)C-choline PET/CT, mean standardized uptake value (SUVmean), prostate-to-muscle (P/M) ratio, metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) from 74 patients with histologically proven PCa were quantified. A total of 13 patients with focal chronic prostatitis without severe features and 30 patients with benign prostate hyperplasia were used for comparison. Univariable and multivariable analyses were performed to compare the patient characteristics and metabolic parameters of (11)C-choline PET/CT. The performance of single parameters and the combination of parameters were assessed by using logistic regression models. RESULTS: The comparable c-statistics, which mean the area under the ROC curve in the logistic regression model, of SUVmax, SUVmean, and P/M ratio are 0.657, 0.667, and 0.672, respectively. The c-statistic significantly rose to 0.793 when SUVmax and SUVmean were combined with the P/M ratio. This parameter combination performed the best for PCa cases with all biochemical recurrence risks and for PCa patients grouped by different risk. The greatest improvement over a single parameter, such as P/M ratio, was noted in the group of low-risk PCa, with values of 0.535 to 0.772 for the three-parameter combination. And in the histopathological level, the Ki-67 index is positively correlated with the P/M ratio (r=0.491, p=0.002). CONCLUSION: P/M ratio is a more ideal parameter than SUVmax as a single parameter in early-stage PCa diagnosis. According to our data, the combination of SUVmax, SUVmean, and P/M ratio as a composite parameter for diagnosis of early stage PCa improves the diagnostic accuracy of (11)C-choline PET/CT.