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EAU 2017 | The use of PSMA PET-CT scans in metastatic prostate cancer

Hendrik Van Poppel, MD, PhD, from KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, discusses novel approaches in the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer at the European Association of Urology (EAU) in 2017 in London, UK. The STAMPEDE (NCT00268476) has shown that in patients with newly diagnosed bone metastasis, chemotherapy must be offered first. He explains that the promising new treatments being discussed at this congress are immunotherapy and PSMA PET-CT scans. Immunotherapy has shown to be promising in bladder and kidney cancers, however, more research will need to be carried out to determine its efficacy in prostate cancer. PSMA PET-CT scans may prove particularly useful for patients with oligometastatic disease, where after prostatectomy or radiotherapy, PSA levels remain high. PSMA PET-CT would allow for the detection of solitary bone metastases, as well as solitary nodes missed during lymphadenectomy. This would enable more targeted treatment, allowing castration and androgen deprivation therapy to be postponed, while still monitoring PSA levels. He states that even if it doesn’t give a survival benefit, it will give a quality of life benefit.