In a direct comparison with gallium-68 (Ga-68) prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) PET/CT, MR imaging with a ferumoxtran-10 nanoparticle contrast agent (nano-MRI) identified significantly more suspected serious lymph nodes, as well as nodes that were significantly smaller. At the same time, the two approaches were fairly complementary, as they both discovered some lymph nodes the other modality missed.
"Although there is no reference standard in this study, the main results mentioned above provide insight into the complementary performance of both modalities by identifying aspects where they agree and disagree," wrote the authors led by Dr. Melline Schilham from Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. "Such results allow the definition of future areas of research that need to be addressed in order to define the optimal imaging strategy for prostate cancer patients."