Assessing the effectiveness of MRI, <sup>18</sup>F-fluciclovine PET, SUV<sub>max</sub>, and PSA in detecting local recurrence of prostate cancer after prostatectomy

PurposeThe primary objective of this study was to evaluate the discriminatory utility of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ¹⁸F-fluciclovine positron emission tomography (PET), maximum standardized uptake value (SUV_max), prostate-specific antigen (PSA), and combinations of these diagnostic modalities for detecting local prostate cancer recurrence in the setting of rising PSA after radical prostatectomy.Material and methodsPatients were characterised for clinical features such as Gleason score, PSA at surgery, PSA at follow-up, follow-up MRI result, follow-up PET result, follow-up SUV_max, and follow-up disease status. The utility of diagnostic parameters for detecting disease recurrence at the prostatectomy bed was assessed using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis to determine the area under the curve (AUC) for each model. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive/negative predictive values were also calculated. Optimal cut-off points for continuous variables were determined based on maximum Youden’s J statistics.ResultsThe study found that MRI had the highest concordance (96%), sensitivity (100%), specificity (91%), positive predictive value (93%), and negative predictive value (100%) among the diagnostic modalities. The AUC for MRI was 0.9545, indicating a high discriminatory ability for detecting prostate cancer local recurrence. When combined, PET and SUV_max (cut-off value of 2.85) showed an improved performance compared to using them individually, with an AUC of 0.8925.ConclusionsThe analysis suggests that MRI is the most effective imaging modality for detecting local prostate cancer recurrence, with ¹⁸F-fluciclovine PET and SUV_max also showing promising combined results. PSA has moderate discriminatory utility at follow-up but can still provide valuable information in detecting prostate cancer recurrence. Further research and recent references are needed to support these findings.