@dribbles (You might already know all this……)

“SUV” stands for “standard uptake value” and is a measure of radiotracer uptake that indicates how high grade the cancer is. The higher the SUVmax, the more advanced the cancer.

The PSMA PET scan report should also reference the SUVmax scores of your:
> lacrimal (tear) or parotid (salivary) glands
> liver (hepatic)
> blood

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 up 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).

So, they use for comparison the PSMA SUVmax values of your blood (as the lowest level), liver (as the medium level), and parotid or lacrimal glands (as the highest level) of SUVmax expression.

If a suspicious area (lesion) is expressing PSMA, and it has:
> a PSMA SUV score less than blood, then it’s not likely cancer, but instead just normal, background PSMA cellular expression;

> a PSMA SUV score greater than blood, but lower than liver, then it’s likely low-grade prostate cancer;

> a PSMA SUV score greater than liver, but lower than the lacrimal/parotid glands, then it’s likely moderate-grade prostate cancer;

> a PSMA SUV score greater than the parotid/lacrimal glands, then it’s likely high-grade prostate cancer;

Where does your 8.9 SUVmax fall on that blood-liver-parotid(or lacrimal) SUVmax range?

As always, discuss all this with your doctor.