Differentiation of prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia: the clinical value of201Tl SPECT—A pilot study

Purpose: Thallium-201 (201Tl) is a recognized tumor-imaging agent; however, the usefulness of201Tl in prostate cancer has not been studied. The purpose of this preliminary study was to evaluate the efficacy of201Tl single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging for differentiating prostate cancer from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).Methods:201Tl pelvic SPECT was performed in 10 patients (aged 64–78 years) with biopsy-proven BPH before transurethral resection of the prostate and 15 patients (aged 65–81 years) with biopsy-proven prostate cancer prior to any therapeutic modality or invasive surgical procedures for treatment of their prostate cancer.Results: From the 15 patients with prostate cancer,201Tl pelvic SPECT detected prostate cancer in 13 (86. 7%) but not in 2 (13.3%) patients with Gleason scores of 5 (2+3). In contrast, all 10 patients with BPH (100.0%) had negative results of201Tl pelvic SPECT.Conclusion: Our study showed that201Tl pelvic SPECT scan is very helpful in distinguishing between prostate cancer and BPH.