Скачать или смотреть Investigating the use & prognostic value of PET scans in patients with prostate cancer, Grayson Wass

Prostate cancer (PCa) is an uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate gland, which can later spread to other areas of the body. During diagnosis, nuclear medicine imaging such as PSMA positron emission tomography (PET) can help stage the cancer and determine the best options for treatment. PSMA PET is a new imaging technique which is more accurate for staging PCa compared to conventional imaging. This study analysed the demographic and clinical characteristics of NZ PCa patients who received PSMA scans. We found that patients living in Auckland had the most PSMA scans (41.3%). Of the patients who received scans, 85.4% were European and 8.9% were Māori/Pacific. We found that patients living in the South Island were 0.78 times (CI 0.62-0.99); p = 0.038) as likely to be diagnosed at a public hospital, compared to patients in the North Island, highlighting potential differences in the availability of public healthcare.