The efficacy of radioligand therapy (RLT) targeting prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is currently being investigated for its application in patients with early-stage prostate cancer (PCa). However, little is known about PSMA expression in healthy organs in this cohort. Collectively, 202 [68Ga]Ga-PSMA-11 positron emission tomography (PET) scans from 152 patients were studied. Of these, 102 PET scans were from patients with primary PCa and hormone-sensitive biochemically recurrent PCa and 50 PET scans were from patients with metastatic castration-resistant PCa (mCRPC) before and after three cycles of [177Lu]Lu-PSMA-RLT. PSMA-standardized uptake values (SUV) were measured in multiple organs and PSMA-total tumor volume (PSMA-TTV) was determined in all cohorts. The measured PET parameters of the different cohorts were normalized to the bloodpool and compared using t- or Mann-Whitney U tests. Patients with early-stage PCa had lower PSMA-TTVs (10.39 mL vs. 462.42 mL, p < 0.001) and showed different SUVs in the thyroid, submandibular glands, heart, liver, kidneys, intestine, testes and bone marrow compared to patients with advanced CRPC, with all tests showing p < 0.05. Despite the differences in the PSMA-TTV of patients with mCRPC before and after [177Lu]Lu-PSMA-RLT (462.42 mL vs. 276.29 mL, p = 0.023), no significant organ differences in PET parameters were detected. These suggest different degrees of PSMA-ligand binding among patients with different stages of PCa that could influence radiotoxicity during earlier stages of disease in different organs when PSMA-RLT is administered.

Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image Guided Therapy Division of General and Pediatric Radiology Medical University of Vienna 1090 Vienna Austria

Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image Guided Therapy Division of Nuclear Medicine Medical University of Vienna 1090 Vienna Austria

Department of Urology 2nd Faculty of Medicine Charles University 15006 Prague Czech Republic

Department of Urology and Andrology University Hospital Krems Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences 3500 Krems Austria

Department of Urology Comprehensive Cancer Center Vienna General Hospital Medical University of Vienna 1090 Vienna Austria

Department of Urology University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Dallas TX 75390 USA

Department of Urology Weill Cornell Medical College New York NY 10065 USA

Division of Urology Department of Special Surgery Jordan University Hospital The University of Jordan Amman 11942 Jordan

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