SUV on PSMA-PET

[Jewelrylady]

I have seen other posts mention SUV from PSMA results. What is SUV. My husband had a PSMA - PET, but report never said anything about SUV.

[Tall_Allen]

Standard Uptake Value - the amount of the radioindicator that latched onto the cancer. The higher, the more PSMA found.

[Jewelrylady in reply to Tall_Allen]

Thanks. All it says is intense uptake in left posterior lateral prostate gland. No regional nodes are detected. Then it mentions intense focus on 3 spots on spine and one rib. No where does it say SUV. Is that unusual not to mention it?

[Xavier10 in reply to Jewelrylady]

good question. usually they use the word "avid" if it is cancer. They also use the word "indeterminate" if they don't know if spots are cancer or not. they do a CT scan at the same time and if the intense focus is corroborated by a lesion shown by the CT scan, then that would probably make up their mind, but if not, then it is "indeterminate" and could be attributed to something else, like an old injury. But looking at your past questions, this occurred quite awhile ago. Are you revisiting the issue thinking that perhaps his diagnosis was incorrect? I think it's possible. But it's also possible that if they are unsure they radiate it anyway just to be careful.

[dhccpa in reply to Xavier10]

My PSMA report showed SUV of 24.7 in the prostate, but nowhere else. My report mentions SUV but not the word "avid."

[Jewelrylady in reply to Xavier10]

I was reviewing his PSMA from last year because I didn’t remember seeing anything about SUV, but saw it mentioned here quite often, so I was just curious if this was an omission or common.

[Xavier10 in reply to Jewelrylady]

I think they see how the SUV compares to the other organs in the body. Some organs produce quite a bit of SUV from the radioactive isotope. I had a gallium Ga-68 PSMA in July and it said this and basically compared the amounts to these, as follows. I think everybody is a little different. Also, Pylarify may used different terminology.

FINDINGS:

Reference normal parotid gland SUV max is 20.9

Reference blood pool SUV max is 3.5

Reference normal liver parenchyma SUV max is 13.1

. . . .

IMPRESSION:

1. No PSMA avid focus to suggest local or metastatic metabolically active disease.

2. miPSMA score: 0

Reference: Based on published literature, the imaging score for PSMA agents is as follows:

miPSMA Expression Score

Score Reported PSMA expression Uptake

0 No Below blood pool

1 Low Equal to or above blood pool and lower than liver*

2 Intermediate Equal to or above liver* and lower than parotid gland

3 High Equal to or above parotid gland

* For PSMA ligands with liver-dominant excretion (e.g., 18F-PSMA1007) spleen is recommended as reference organ instead of liver.

[treedown]

My Pylarify PSMA Pet scan had no SUV on it either. I asked multiple Drs and they couldn't explain why not.

[dhccpa in reply to treedown]

Yes, I dislike that we can't talk directly to the radiologist. I've thought of calling them directly but haven't yet.

[treedown in reply to dhccpa]

I thought it was standard, but apparently not.

[Sewinggam]

We are at Duke and our doctor said Duke doesn’t report SUV. I can’t remember the whole explanation but recall they didn’t feel it was an accurate indicator, which I thought interesting since it’s mentioned a lot on this site.

[dhccpa in reply to Sewinggam]

Interesting

[Still_in_shock in reply to Sewinggam]

It was a great indicator for me! Showed me that SUV was diminishing during treatment.

[Rodeoz15]

Here is a good explanation by GPT:

In a PSMA PET scan, SUV is a number that shows how much of the radioactive tracer (used in the scan) is taken up by different parts of your body. The tracer specifically attaches to PSMA, a protein found in high amounts on prostate cancer cells.

If a spot has a high SUV, it means that area is taking up a lot of the tracer. This could indicate prostate cancer or something suspicious.

If the SUV is low, it usually means the area is less likely to have cancer.

[Jewelrylady in reply to Rodeoz15]

My husband’s scan didn’t mention SUV

[Jpburns]

I think “avidity” means brightness in terms of what the radiologist sees on the test. The more avidity, the larger SUV and the greater uptake.