Risk of metastatic disease using [(18)F]PSMA-1007 PET/CT for primary prostate cancer staging

BACKGROUND: Accurate prostate cancer imaging is critical for patient management. Multiple studies have demonstrated superior diagnostic accuracy of [(68)Ga]-PSMA-11 PET/CT over conventional imaging for disease detection, with validated clinical and biochemical predictors of disease detection. More recently [(18)F]PSMA-1007 offers theoretical imaging advantages, but there is limited evidence of clinical and biochemical predictors of scan findings in the staging population. This study investigates the association of clinical variables with imaging characteristics among patients who underwent [(18)F]PSMA-1007 PET/CT for primary staging of men with histopathologically confirmed prostate carcinoma. A retrospective review of 194 consecutive patients imaged between May 2019 to May 2020 was performed. Association between imaging variables (presence and distribution of metastatic disease, primary tumour SUVmax) and clinical variables (EAU risk criteria) were assessed using descriptive statistics, logistic regression model and ROC analysis. RESULTS: The median age, PSA level and ISUP grade were 70 years, 10 ng/mL and ISUP grade 3, respectively. There were 36.6% of patients with intermediate-risk and 60.8% of patients with high-risk disease. ISUP grade was associated with the presence of metastasis overall (p = 0.008) as well as regional nodal (p = 0.003), non-regional nodal (p = 0.041) and bone (p = 0.006) metastases. PSA level was associated with metastatic disease overall (p = 0.001), regional (p = 0.001) and non-regional nodal metastases (p = 0.004), but not with bone metastases (p = 0.087). There were too few visceral metastases for meaningful analysis. SUVmax of the primary prostatic tumour was associated with ISUP grade (p = 0.004), PSA level (p < 0.001) and AJCC stage (p = 0.034). PSA > 20 ng/mL and ISUP grade > 3 had a specificity of 85% (95% CI 78–91%) and 60% (95% CI 50–68%) and a sensitivity of 36% (95% CI 25–49%) and 62% (95% CI 49–74%), respectively, for detection of metastatic disease. CONCLUSION: Metastatic disease according to [(18)F]PSMA-1007 PET/CT was associated with ISUP grade and PSA level. This is the largest study using [(18)F]PSMA-1007 PET/CT to confirm a positive correlation of PSA level, ISUP grade and stage with primary prostate tumour SUVmax. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13550-021-00869-5.