Dr. Yu on the Role of PET Imaging in Prostate Cancer

Evan Y. Yu, MD, associate professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Oncology, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, discusses the role of PET imaging in prostate cancer.

Yu says sodium chloride PET is widely available for the detection of bone metastases. Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) will pay for the scan through The National Oncology PET Registry (NOPR).

While physicians and researchers need to test novel imaging modalities or radiotracers, Yu says there is a greater need to determine if the change in response to therapy by these PET imaging modalities can correlate with long-term outcomes. Clinical testing needs to take place before this can be used in the community setting.

Yu says one of the strengths of PET imaging is that it can detect heterogeneity of disease response. Prostate cancer is one of the most heterogeneous diseases and PET imaging helps physicians to understand how lesions are responding to treatment.