Tag: 68Ga-PSMA-11

Day 3,938 – UCLA Referral Update

On By DanIn imaging, Prostate CancerLeave a comment

I grew a little impatient with my team at the San Diego VA Medical Center not providing any information about the referral for the PSMA PET scan at UCLA since our consult on 3 August, so I sent them an email at the end of the week asking for an update.

This morning, the doctor that I had for the consult—the one who thought this was a good idea and who seemed eager to get it scheduled—reported that UCLA has yet to send him the form that he needs to do the referral. He didn’t exactly say when it was that he asked, but he did say that he would follow up with them tomorrow.

He gave me their fax number, so I, too, will give UCLA’s Department of Nuclear Medicine a call tomorrow to see what needs to be done to get them off the dime and to send the referral form.

That’s about it for now. More to come, I’m sure.

On an unrelated note, my bonkers incontinence issues have calmed considerably, but not quite back to where I can go without pads yet. Not sure what that was all about.

Be well!

Watch: Current Status of PSMA Diagnostics

On By DanIn imaging, Prostate Cancer3 Comments

Here’s a good overview of PSMA diagnostics by Dr. Calais, one of the UCLA doctors involved with getting 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET approved by the FDA. It’s a bit on the technical side, but it does show the strengths and limitations of the imaging technique.

Day 3,906 – UCLA PSMA Update

On By DanIn imaging, Prostate CancerLeave a comment

It’s been a week since I submitted the form on the UCLA website for a referral for the PSMA PET scan, and I hadn’t heard anything back, so I called them this morning.

When I mentioned that I submitted the form about a week ago, the agent said, “Oh. Yeah. We can’t book appointments using the form on our website. We need to take that down.” Uh. Okay. Good to know.

To schedule the PSMA scan:

  • The referring physician needs to call the scheduling number: +1 310-794-1005.
  • UCLA Nuclear Medicine will fax a referral form to the doctor to complete and return.
  • It will take 24-48 hours to process the returned form.
  • They’ll work with the patient to select a date for the scan.

They are currently scheduling appointments in September, so there’s a bit of a delay which isn’t all that surprising.

Now all I have to do is convince my doctor at the VA to go through the process once we get the bone scan results back. I’m not sure how that will go, but you can bet I’ll push pretty hard to make it happen.

If they insist on doing the Axumin scan at the VA first, I guess I’m okay with that. But if that comes back negative, I’ll really press for the PSMA PET scan. I’m just not all that keen on having all this radioactive juice injected in me over the course of a few weeks.

We’ll see how things go.

Be well!

Day 3,895 – Insurance Update

On By DanIn Prostate Cancer, Recurrence, TreatmentLeave a comment

I just received a quick update from my health insurance company regarding coverage of the Ga68 PSMA PET scan at UCLA—the quick turnaround surprised me. It appears to be good news, but it was a little squishy, so I had to ask for confirmation of a few things.

In their email to me, they listed the contractual amount that they would pay out for each CPT code that I gave them, but that’s all they said. It sort of implies that I’m covered, but it doesn’t say so explicitly. Needless to say, when dealing with insurance companies, I want things to be very explicit without any loopholes.

I just sent them and email asking them to:

  • Confirm that I am covered under my employer-provided healthcare plan.
  • Confirm whether or not UCLA Department of Nuclear Medicine is considered to be in-network or out-of-network (different deductibles).

Hopefully, I get that confirmation early next week and can share the information with my doctor.

More to come…

Be well!

Day 3,893 – PSMA PET at UCLA Info

On By DanIn Prostate Cancer, Recurrence2 Comments

My health insurance company replied to my email with more questions than answers, which was okay by me because they were trying to learn more about the Ga68 PSMA PET scan at UCLA.

First, they were looking for the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes that would apply to the imaging. I didn’t know what those were, so I had to do a little searching:

Current Procedural Terminology, more commonly known as CPT®, refers to a medical code set created and maintained by the American Medical Association — and used by physicians, allied health professionals, nonphysician practitioners, hospitals, outpatient facilities, and laboratories to represent the services and procedures they perform. No provider of outpatient services gets paid without reporting the proper CPT® codes.

https://www.aapc.com/codes/cpt-codes-range/

I called the Nuclear Medicine Clinic at UCLA (+1 310-794-1005) to get the applicable CPT codes, and they happily shared them with me:

78815
70491
79260
74177
A9597

My insurance company also wanted to know the specific address of the clinic to help determine if they were in or out of network:

200 UCLA Medical Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Lastly, I did ask the UCLA representative how much the scan costs and, as of 8 July 2021, it’s $3,300.

So I fired all of that information back to my insurance representative and am awaiting her response. I’ll keep you posted.

Be well!

P.S. To anyone trying to get information about the Ga68 PSMA PET at UCLA for their insurance company, you’re welcome!

Day 3,892 – Scan-a-Palooza

On By DanIn Prostate Cancer, Recurrence6 Comments

Let the radioactive fun begin!

I was able to schedule my bone and CT scans this morning with considerable ease. In fact, things will happen much sooner than I thought they might. My CT scan is scheduled next Wednesday, 14 July, and my bone scan is scheduled Friday, 23 July.

I have to go for some pre-scan lab work tomorrow afternoon to ensure that my kidneys are working fine and won’t be damaged by one of the contrasts.

I haven’t given up on the Ga-68 PSMA PET scan. In fact, I wrote my health insurance company an email about 4:30 a.m. as I tossed and turned. (Last night was hell. If I slept more than 2 hours—non-consecutively—that was about it.) They tout having a response within 2 business days, so we’ll see if they come through with that.

UCLA is out of network for my insurance company, so I’d have to cough up 40% of the cost if they’re going to cover it at all. I’m okay with that. (For my overseas readers, welcome to U.S. health care systems!)

So that’s the latest and greatest. More to come, I’m sure.

Be well!

Watch “Rising PSA: How Soon Should You Get a Scan? | Thomas Hope, MD & Mark Moyad, MD | 2021 PCRI” on YouTube

On By DanIn Prostate Cancer, Recurrence, Treatment1 Comment

Wow. This could not be more applicable to my current circumstances and certainly gives me food for thought.

Watch “2021: PSMA and Prostate Imaging | Dr. Thomas Hope | 2021 Moyad + Scholz Mid-Year Update | PCRI” on YouTube

On By DanIn Recurrence, Research1 Comment

I came across this video highlighting Ga68 PSMA PET imaging from the doctor at the University of California San Francisco who helped with developing this imaging technique. It’s a bit long and a bit technical in some places, but gives a good overview.

Ga-68 PSMA PET/CT Imaging Issues

On By DanIn Prostate Cancer, Research5 Comments

I stumbled across this page/video, PSMA PET/CT- Struggling with Increased Sensitivity, of a presentation about bringing Ga 68 PSMA PET/CT imaging online from the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) Annual Meeting. It’s definitely worth the 23 minutes to watch it if you have any interest in imaging for prostate cancer.

Ga 68 PSMA PET/CT scans definitely can see much more than current imaging technologies and is fast becoming the new “gold standard” of prostate cancer imaging. But, as with anything new, there are things we have to understand to use the technology to its full advantage and to not misinterpret what it’s telling us.

One of the statements in the presentation that struck me was, “Just because you can see it, doesn’t mean you should treat it.” The presenter described the following scenario:

“So this is a patient who’s eight years after a prostatectomy with rising PSA and when the gallium PSMA PET scan is done, we see focal intense uptake in a solitary mesorectal node, which measures two to three millimeters and we’re really seeing micro metastatic disease. And I think the title of the slide is just because you can see it, doesn’t mean you should treat it because we don’t know how long that lymph nodes been there for. This is not in the classical nodal dissection. This lymph node could have been there five years ago and maybe it hasn’t changed and we don’t know that. So it’s easy now to say let’s cut it out because we can see it or let’s give it stereotactic radiotherapy, but I look at an image like this and think if it’s taken eight years for this lymph node to get to two to three millimeters, this is extremely indolent disease and perhaps it’s best left alone.”

He also talked about early interventions taken as a result of the PSMA PET/CT scans that may have caused more problems for the patient than necessary without changing the outcome (i.e., continued recurrence after the procedure).

Again, I found this to be very enlightening as I’m heading into my appointment this week and considering going to UCLA for their PSMA trial.