Distribution of prostate nodes: a PET/CT-derived anatomic atlas of prostate cancer patients before and after surgical treatment.

Background: In order to define adequate radiation portals in nodal positive prostate cancer a detailed knowledge of the anatomic lymph-node distribution is mandatory. We therefore systematically analyzed the localization of Choline PET/CT positive lymph nodes and compared it to the RTOG recommendation of pelvic CTV, as well as to previous work, the SPECT sentinel lymph node atlas.

Methods: Thirty-two patients being mostly high risk patients with a PSA of 12.