Prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography/computed tomography as a potential tool to assess and guide salivary gland irradiation

Matthijs H Valstar; Emilia C Owers; Abrahim Al-Mamgani; Ludwig E Smeele; Jeroen B van de Kamer; Jan-Jakob Sonke; Wouter V Vogel

doi:10.1016/j.phro.2019.02.004

Prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography/computed tomography as a potential tool to assess and guide salivary gland irradiation

Phys Imaging Radiat Oncol. 2019 Mar 4:9:65-68. doi: 10.1016/j.phro.2019.02.004. eCollection 2019 Jan.

Authors

Matthijs H Valstar^{1

2}, Emilia C Owers³, Abrahim Al-Mamgani⁴, Ludwig E Smeele^{1

2}, Jeroen B van de Kamer⁴, Jan-Jakob Sonke⁴, Wouter V Vogel^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Head and Neck Oncology and Surgery, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
² Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
³ Department of Nuclear Medicine, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Radiation Oncology, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Abstract

Evaluation of salivary gland damage after head and neck radiotherapy (RT) is difficult with current tools, such as subjective patient-reported outcome measures. We demonstrate the use of prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PSMA PET/CT) as an objective non-invasive tool to visualize damage to salivary glands resulting from RT. In three clinical cases, the PSMA-ligand distribution correlates to the RT dose distribution including intra-gland dose gradients and matches patient-reported toxicity, suggesting a dose-response relation. These findings support further exploration of PSMA PET/CT to guide and evaluate RT, with the ultimate aim to reduce salivary gland toxicity.

Keywords: Case series; Head and neck neoplasms; PSMA; Radiotherapy; Salivary glands; Toxicity.

Publication types

Case Reports