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Biodistribution and radiation dosimetry of 68Ga-PSMA HBED CC—a PSMA specific probe for PET imaging of prostate cancer

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Abstract

Purpose

Positron emission tomography (PET) agents targeting the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) are currently under broad clinical and scientific investigation. 68Ga-PSMA HBED-CC constitutes the first 68Ga-labelled PSMA-inhibitor and has evolved as a promising agent for imaging PSMA expression in vivo. The aim of this study was to evaluate the whole-body distribution and radiation dosimetry of this new probe.

Methods

Five patients with a history or high suspicion of prostate cancer were injected intravenously with a mean of 139.8 ± 13.7 MBq of 68Ga-PSMA HBED-CC (range 120–158 MBq). Four static skull to mid-thigh scans using a whole-body fully integrated PET/MR-system were performed 10 min, 60 min, 130 min, and 175 min after the tracer injection. Time-dependent changes of the injected activity per organ were determined. Mean organ-absorbed doses and effective doses (ED) were calculated using OLINDA/EXM.

Results

Injection of a standard activity of 150 MBq 68Ga-PSMA HBED-CC resulted in a median effective dose of 2.37 mSv (Range 1.08E-02 – 2.46E-02 mSv/MBq). The urinary bladder wall (median absorbed dose 1.64E-01 mGv/MBq; range 8.76E-02 – 2.91E-01 mGv/MBq) was the critical organ, followed by the kidneys (median absorbed dose 1.21E-01 mGv/MBq; range 7.16E-02 – 1.75E-01), spleen (median absorbed dose 4.13E-02 mGv/MBq; range 1.57E-02 – 7.32E-02 mGv/MBq) and liver (median absorbed dose 2.07E-02 mGv/MBq; range 1.80E-02 – 2.57E-02 mGv/MBq). No drug-related pharmacological effects occurred.

Conclusion

The use of 68Ga-PSMA HBED-CC results in a relatively low radiation exposure, delivering organ doses that are comparable to those of other 68Ga-labelled PSMA-inhibitors used for PET-imaging. Total effective dose is lower than for other PET-agents used for prostate cancer imaging (e.g. 11C- and 18F-Choline).

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Acknowledgments

We thank Daniela Hiob for editing the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Technische Universität München, Klinikum rechts der Isar; Ismaningerstrasse 22, 81675, Munich, Germany

    Christian H. Pfob, Sibylle Ziegler, Frank Philipp Graner, Markus Köhner, Sylvia Schachoff, Birgit Blechert, Klemens Scheidhauer, Markus Schwaiger & Matthias Eiber

  2. Chair of Pharmaceutical Radiochemistry, Department Chemie, Technische Universität München, Walther-Meissner-Str. 3, 85748, Garching, Germany

    Hans-Jürgen Wester

  3. Department of Urology, Technische Universität München, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Ismaninger Str. 22, 81675, Munich, Germany

    Tobias Maurer

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  1. Christian H. Pfob
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christian H. Pfob.

Ethics declarations

Markus Schwaiger has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7) under Grant Agreement No. 294582 ERC Grant MUMI. The development of 68Ga-PSMA HBED-CC synthesis was supported by SFB 824 (DFG Sonderforschungsbereich 824, Project Z1) from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bonn, Germany. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The analysis of patient data was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Technische Universität München (permit 5665/13). Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Pfob, C.H., Ziegler, S., Graner, F.P. et al. Biodistribution and radiation dosimetry of 68Ga-PSMA HBED CC—a PSMA specific probe for PET imaging of prostate cancer. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 43, 1962–1970 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-016-3424-3

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