Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine
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The National Cancer Institute developed the Centers for Quantitative Imaging Excellence (CQIE) initiative in 2010 to prequalify imaging facilities at all of the National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive and clinical cancer centers for oncology trials using advanced imaging techniques, including PET. Here we review the CQIE PET/CT scanner qualification process and results in detail. Methods: Over a period of approximately 5 y, sites were requested to submit a variety of phantoms, including uniform and American College of Radiology-approved phantoms, PET/CT images, and examples of clinical images. ⋯ Conclusion: The results of the CQIE process showed that periodic requalification may decrease the frequency of deficient data submissions. The CQIE project also highlighted the concern within imaging facilities about the burden of maintaining different qualifications and accreditations. Finally, for quantitative imaging-based trials, further evaluation of the relationships between the level of the qualification (e.g., bias or precision) and the quality of the image data, accrual rates, and study power is needed.
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The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the detection rate of Glu-NH-CO-NH-Lys-(Ahx)-[68Ga(HBED-CC)] (68Ga-PSMA ligand; PSMA is prostate-specific membrane antigen) PET/CT in patients with biochemical recurrent prostate cancer defined by Phoenix criteria after external-beam radiotherapy or brachytherapy as primary treatment. Methods: One hundred eighteen patients with a median prostate-specific antigen (PSA) of 6.4 ng/mL (range, 2.2-158.4 ng/mL; interquartile range, 4.2-10.2 ng/mL) were finally eligible for this retrospective analysis. Seventy-seven and 41 patients had been treated by external-beam radiotherapy or brachytherapy, respectively. ⋯ Conclusion:68Ga-PSMA ligand PET/CT demonstrates high detection rates in patients with biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer after primary radiation therapy. The detection rate was positively associated to increasing PSA as well as concomitant ADT. 68Ga-PSMA ligand PET/CT enables discrimination of local versus metastatic disease and thus might have a crucial impact on further clinical management. A major limitation of this study is the lack of histopathologic proof in most patients.
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Metalic implants may affect attenuation correction (AC) in PET/MR imaging. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of susceptibility artifacts related to metallic implants on adjacent metabolically active lesions in clinical simultaneous PET/MR scanning for both time-of-flight (TOF) and non-TOF reconstructed PET images. Methods: We included 27 patients without implants but with confirmed 18F-FDG-avid lesions adjacent to common implant locations. ⋯ On larger, highly 18F-FDG-avid lesions, the metallic implants had only a limited effect. The largest significant quantitative difference was found in artifacts of the sternum. There was only a weak inverse correlation between lesions affected by artifacts and distance from the implant.