Nuclear Medicine Imaging of Prostate Cancer in the Elderly

Due to the increasing life expectancy, the diagnosis of malignancy and treatment of elderly patients is becoming more common. Prostate cancer is particularly frequent in this setting. Many different approaches are now available, but some of them imply significant risks or collateral effects. In those patients an accurate evaluation of risk-to-benefit ratio is needed, and functional imaging such as PET/CT is important for the clinician to make the appropriate choice. PET/CT in prostate cancer is a well-tolerated procedure that can be used to accurately assess the tumor extent during the entire clinical history of the disease. Nowadays there are several available radiopharmaceuticals for prostate cancer PET/CT imaging, each one with specific advantages and disadvantages. The two most promising and more widely employed in the clinical setting are 18F-Flucyclovine and 68Ga-PSMA. This paper will provide an overview of these two tracers for imaging prostate cancer in elderly patients.