Differentiation of prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia: the clinical value of 201Tl SPECT--a pilot study.
OBJECTIVE
Thallium-201 (201Tl) is a recognized tumor-imaging agent; however, the usefulness of 201Tl in prostate cancer has not been studied. The purpose of this preliminary study was to evaluate the efficacy of 201Tl single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging for differentiating prostate cancer from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).


METHODS
201Tl pelvic SPECT was performed in 10 patients (aged 64-78 years) with biopsy-proven BPH before transurethral resection of the prostate and 15 patients (aged 65-81 years) with biopsy-proven prostate cancer prior to any therapeutic modality or invasive surgical procedures for treatment of their prostate cancer.


RESULTS
From the 15 patients with prostate cancer, 201Tl pelvic SPECT detected prostate cancer in 13 (86.7%) but not in 2 (13.3%) patients with Gleason scores of 5 (2 + 3). In contrast, all 10 patients with BPH (100.0%) had negative results of 201Tl pelvic SPECT.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study showed that 201Tl pelvic SPECT scan is very helpful in distinguishing between prostate cancer and BPH.
Yang
Ching-Chiang
CC
Departments of Urology, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
Sun
Shung-Shung
SS
Lin
Chun-Yi
CY
Chuang
Feng-Ju
FJ
Kao
Chia-Hung
CH
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011470:Prostatic Hyperplasia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013793:Thallium; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000379:methods*
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; C027549:thallium chloride; D013793:Thallium