PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Pedro Fragoso Costa
AU  - Wolfgang P. Fendler
AU  - Ken Herrmann
AU  - Patrick Sandach
AU  - Hong Grafe
AU  - Maarten R. Grootendorst
AU  - Lukas Püllen
AU  - Claudia Kesch
AU  - Ulrich Krafft
AU  - Jan P. Radtke
AU  - Stephan Tschirdewahn
AU  - Boris A. Hadaschik
AU  - Christopher Darr
TI  - Radiation Protection and Occupational Exposure on <sup>68</sup>Ga-PSMA-11–Based Cerenkov Luminescence Imaging Procedures in Robot-Assisted Prostatectomy
AID  - 10.2967/jnumed.121.263175
DP  - 2022 Sep 01
TA  - Journal of Nuclear Medicine
PG  - 1349--1356
VI  - 63
IP  - 9
4099  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/63/9/1349.short
4100  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/63/9/1349.full
SO  - J Nucl Med2022 Sep 01; 63
AB  - Cerenkov luminescence imaging (CLI) was successfully implemented in the intraoperative context as a form of radioguided cancer surgery, showing promise in the detection of surgical margins during robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. The present study was designed to provide a quantitative description of the occupational radiation exposure of surgery and histopathology personnel from CLI-guided robot-assisted radical prostatectomy after the injection of 68Ga-PSMA-11 in a single-injection PET/CT CLI protocol. Methods: Ten patients with preoperative 68Ga-PSMA-11 administration and intraoperative CLI were included. Patient dose rate was measured before PET/CT (n = 10) and after PET/CT (n = 5) at a 1-m distance for 4 patient regions (head [A], right side [B], left side [C], and feet [D]). Electronic personal dosimetry (EPD) was used for intraoperative occupational exposure (n = 10). Measurements included the first surgical assistant and scrub nurse at the operating table and the CLI imager/surgeon at the robotic console and encompassed the whole duration of surgery and CLI image acquisition. An estimation of the exposure of histopathology personnel was performed by measuring prostate specimens (n = 8) with a germanium detector. Results: The measured dose rate value before PET/CT was 5.3 ± 0.9 (average ± SD) μSv/h. This value corresponds to a patient-specific dose rate constant for positions B and C of 0.047 μSv/h⋅MBq. The average dose rate value after PET/CT was 1.04 ± 1.00 μSv/h. The patient-specific dose rate constant values corresponding to regions A to D were 0.011, 0.026, 0.024, and 0.003 μSv/h⋅MBq, respectively. EPD readings revealed average personal equivalent doses of 9.0 ± 7.1, 3.3 ± 3.9, and 0.7 ± 0.7 μSv for the first surgical assistant, scrub nurse, and CLI imager/surgeon, respectively. The median germanium detector–measured activity of the prostate specimen was 2.96 kBq (interquartile range, 2.23–7.65 kBq). Conclusion: Single-injection 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT CLI procedures are associated with a reasonable occupational exposure level, if kept under 110 procedures per year. Excised prostate specimen radionuclide content was below the exemption level for 68Ga. Dose rate–based calculations provide a robust estimation for EPD measurements.