Nuclear medicine techniques for the diagnosis and therapy of prostate carcinoma

Nuclear medicine techniques play an important role in (re)staging and treat ment of prostate carcinoma patients. These techniques are reviewed in this paper. For many years, bone scanning has been a valuable tool for the evalu ation of bone metastases. Although utilized in a more refined way since the introduction of serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) measurement, it is s till the procedure of choice in patients with higher-grade or higher-stage tumors and elevated or rising PSA levels. Labeled monoclonal antibodies hav e been found to have some utility in the clinic for the evaluation of disse minated malignant prostate disease and position emission tomography holds p romise for the metabolic characterization of prostate cancer. Several agent s are available for radionuclide therapy for bone pain palliation in patien ts with metastasis, improving pain with; minimal side effects or discomfort to the patient. Nuclear medicine techniques in prostate carcinoma are far from obsolete. On the contrary, they are evolving and offer unique opportun ities for the management of these patients. The bone scan remains useful in well-defined stages of disease, and palliative therapeutic options are evo lving. At present, monoclonal antibodies and PET are not very useful in dai ly clinical practice. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.