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Not Good News after prostate biospy when MRI didn't look too bad
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: 2 hours ago | Replies (140)Comment receiving replies
@heavyphil
Thanks for the information, gives me a little better feeling. Did they also not assign your hip a SUV? Did the assign your prostate with a SUV? However, I would like them just to cut the area open, grab a chunk and look at it under microscope. Well will see, but doubt they think like I do?
Then do still wonder why no SUV number assigned to rib area? They assigned an SUV to prostate 11.1. They said rib area had uptake! If something has an uptake, why not assign SUV. I know what the PA said because "It was a solitary & suggestive of benign lesion and that is why". But the report doesn't call it that, report just says UPTAKE.
Replies to "@heavyphil Thanks for the information, gives me a little better feeling. Did they also not assign..."
@diverjer
As @heavyphil mentioned, sometimes benign things "glow".
I mean, every single scan that we have is open to interpretation and SUVs are there as something that is "suggestive" but often not definitive.
The same applies to MRIs and even just simple X-rays etc. Radiologists see hundreds and hundreds of scans and have to rely on experience a LOT, beside regular parameters. As Phil also mentioned, sometimes the mere placement of a glowing spot can be suggestive that a spot is probably benign.
My husband had one lymph-node with faint uptake and 2 separate radiologists as well as surgeon told us that it is benign (???), now don't ask me how they concluded that - yes uptake was faint BUT - it is still making me nervous as hell. My husband thinks that since his post-op. PSA was so low that it could mean that indeed that particular node is glowing just "for fun" XP, but it is in the back of my mind all the time : (((.
Perhaps you can ask for a second opinion about your scan ? Why not ? Let a radiologist in some other hospital read your scan and tell you his opinion. And, I also agree with you - if it is possible to have a biopsy of that spot, it would be ideal scenario. I wish our surgeon removed some nodes for biopsy during surgery but he did not even though we asked him to do that : (((. *sigh
@diverjer Please don’t get too far in the weeds with SUV #s! It is just a number used to reference the uptake of tracer; and since many body parts and older injuries and inflammatory conditions exhibit uptake, you can stare at that PET scan until you go blind and interpret it any way you like.
It is WAY TOO EARLY in your new reality to start getting hung up on the mechanics of nuclear radiology!!
It’s good to know terms, it’s good to question, but leave the minutiae to the ROs; they know more than our Google search will ever tell us and have years of experience interpreting scans and weeding out the relevant data.
In the beginning, I too dissected every word, tried to interpret every nuance, read everything I could get my hands on. I have something of a scientific background so it was only natural to be inquisitive…But
After many months of that I was physically sick of it and I decided to let go and let the doctors do the heavy lifting - not me.
This is a nut twister of a disease and it is anything but straightforward so please try to relax and not think that everything is etched in stone. You’re going to find that it is only written in pencil, erased numerous times and what you are seeing today could change tomorrow. Best,
Phil
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@diverjer
A rib that I had broken in the 20s is listed as having focal uptake. No SUV since it is not showing any metabolic activity.