Makes cents.

Aussies recently provided high-level evidence that initial staging of high-risk prostate cancer with PSMA-PET is more accurate than when done with standard CT and bone scan. Well, they’re back with a prudent secondary analysis to answer whether this strategy makes financial sense. Due to its novelty, costs of 68Ga-PSMA production and associated PET/CT were estimated from information provided by one site. Costs of the more established CT and bone scan, on the other hand, were derived from the Australian Medicare Benefits Schedule. When using a societal perspective, which takes into account the cost of patient time (1.5 hours for PSMA-PET and 5.5 hours for CT + bone scan), total costs of PSMA-PET versus CT + bone scan in Australian dollars were $1203 versus $1421, respectively. So...that was easy. TBL: Notwithstanding whatever groundless price tag is established by the system, PSMA-PET in the initial staging of high-risk prostate cancer appears both more accurate and less resource intensive than conventional CT and bone scan. | de Feria Cardet, Eur Urol 2020