The Evolving Role of 18F-FDG PET/CT in Diagnosis and Prognosis Prediction in Progressive Prostate Cancer

Abstract

Positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is widely used in prostate cancer to evaluate the localized tumor burden and detect symptomatic metastatic lesions early. 18F-FDG is the most used tracer for oncologic imaging, but it has limitations in detecting early-stage prostate cancer. 68Ga-PSMA is a new tracer that has high specificity and sensibility in detecting local and metastatic tumors. But with the progression of prostate cancer, the enhancement of glucose metabolism in progressive prostate cancer provides a chance for 18F-FDG. This review focuses on PET/CT in the detection and prognosis of prostate cancer, summarizing the literature on 18F-FDG and 68Ga-PSMA in prostate cancer and highlighting that 18F-FDG has advantages in detecting local recurrence, visceral and lymph node metastases compared to 68Ga-PSMA in partial progressive prostate cancer and castration-resistant prostate cancer patients. We emphasize 18F-FDG PET/CT can compensate for the weakness of 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT in progressive prostate cancer.