PSMA PET scans are specific to PSMA. A PSMA PET scan will identify any organ, tissue, or fluid expressing PSMA.

As it turns out, PSMA (prostate specific membrane antigen) is not really “prostate specific.” There are other organs, tissues, and fluids that naturally express PSMA (without being cancerous) and will show as physiologic tracer uptake on a PSMA PET scan - particularly in the lacrimal (tear) and parotid (salivary) glands, blood, liver, spleen, pancreas, ganglia, and more, as well as the kidneys, ureters and the bladder (as the body tries to quickly excrete the radioligand that was injected).

As always, discuss all this with your doctor when you get your SUVmax scores from your PSMA PET scan report.

Dr. Johnson (of Mayo Clinic) talks about all this in his presentation, starting with the scans we’ve all heard about (MRI, bone, & CT scans), and then going into detail about PSMA PET scans: https://youtu.be/JoJomACA5UM