Help reading PET scan

I'm no doc, but I did stay at a ....no I didn't
I say this because I would suggest that you ensure that it's the same exact test read the same exact way as the one you had for PC... Your doc(s) should be able to tell you that.

But with that in mind.

Ultimately what it seems to mean to me is that there is slightly less uptake of the marker / dye / radioactive tracer in the areas that were noticed before which would mean slightly less metabolic activity...or slightly less cancer cells or cancer cell activity.

I would take the "mildly decreased" to mean that it isn't a large change, which is still good in two ways, the progression may have been stopped for now and of course, it's a little less than last time.

Best of Luck to you!

Rice - this is interesting . Sounds Positive though . Im no Doctor and my pathology was done twice - each was 50% unreadable to me. I had to get my GP to read it and he still was baffled by a few meanings , then my RO read it and he got 100% of both Pathology reports ...what im trying to say is it has to be interpreted by the RO or URO . Was it a regular PSMA scan or PSMA PET scan ? Were they looking to analyze the prostate to ? Seems like a focus on the Prostae (?) . Keep us in the loop and let us know after you talk to your URO, im sure you're doing OK .In Canada if something is urgent on those scans we have in plain English a 'warning' of sorts . There is none of that you mentioned , so you should be fine . The URO will clarify or the RO . Gos Bless . James on Vancouver Island

It was a pet scan it was done at a the same hospital where the pet scan that was done in June of 2023 that they compared it to

Ok, thats sounds good . At least they have the other one to compare to . Well , lets hope for the best . Stay positive and active . Let us know what you find out from your RO or URO . If its super alarming they would have been in contact by now ( at least that how it is in Canada) . God Bless my friend , James

@web265
I got a real laugh at the first sentence of your post! I have not seen that commercial in a lot of years. It was saying something about not being a specialist about something, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express.

Thanks for the laugh! Great information to Rice.

Gotta keep that sense of humor! I think there's even someon on here who may have written some stand up based on his experiences. If not, someone should!
Best of Luck!

@rice, reading the results of imaging studies or blood labs before having a chance to review them with your cancer team can be unsettling. Have you met with your oncologist in the meantime? What did you learn?

I my oncologist referred me to a neurosurgeon. Right now he is not concerned. Doing another MRI in January and will continue to monitor it. It is in a dangerous place to operate. So he will monitor until it becomes very concerning

It seems the uptake of the glucose is less than before which I thought is a good thing. I never had a PET scan but both my Pre prostate surgery CT scan and MRI found other incidental findings which I had to have repeat scans taken several months later. All later scans showed no changes, with one scan showing a decrease in size of a non cancerous liver lesion. All my scans were taken at the same facility also. Anyway, it seems whenever a scan is taken there is almost always an incidental finding