Dutasteride treatment and its effect on standardized uptake values in prostate-specific membrane antigen-PET imaging: A pilot study

by Lucas Praetzel, Irene A. Burger, Jan H.

Rüschoff, Niels J. Rupp, Daniel Eberli, Benedikt Kranzbühler Background Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-based imaging has become an increasingly important diagnostic tool in prostate cancer, though limited by low surface expression of PSMA in some patients.

Previous studies have demonstrated that dutasteride can induce PSMA expression in vitro and in vivo . This pilot study aimed to evaluate the impact of short-term dutasteride treatment on standardized uptake values (SUVmax) in PSMA PET imaging and the immunohistochemical expression of PSMA for the first time in humans.

Methods Four prostate cancer (PCa) patients underwent an initial PSMA PET/MRI of the prostate. Afterwards, all patients received 0.5 mg of oral dutasteride once daily for seven days.

Subsequently, a second PSMA PET/MRI of the prostate and a template biopsy were performed. We compared the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of PSMA-positive lesions before and after dutasteride treatment.

Additionally, histopathological specimens from PSMA-positive lesions and negative controls were analyzed for Gleason score and PSMA expression.