I'm interested in conversations about and I want to talk about
Know exactly what you want?
Show search

Notification

Error

Question about a PSMA CT Scan Result Report

User
Posted 26 Jan 2024 at 22:31

Dear Friends,

Can you help me?

I had both a PSMA PET CT and a PSMA PET MRI on 20th December of last year as part of the PROSPER clinical trial which is comparing results the one with the other for the ultimate greater good of all.  

I have only today received on MyChart a record of the results of the former.  (No mention of the MRI findings.)  Specifically it reads:- 

'There is low grade abnormal PSMA activity in the prostate left posterior mid gland and to a lesser extent in the right transition zone at the same level. No definite abnormal seminal vesicle activity is seen.

 

No abnormal nodal activity is seen in the pelvis or retroperitoneum.

No visceral or skeletal sites of abnormal activity are demonstrated.

No active pulmonary lesions. No other CT findings.

 

INTERPRETATION:

Findings in keeping with low grade PSMA expression in the prostate gland as described. No PSMA avid nodal or distant metastatic disease is demonstrated'.

MY QUESTION - 

 

I've been trying to find what the detailed report definition might be for 'low grade PSMA expression'.  I assume it is below 'high grade' and higher than 'very low grade' ... but I'm at a loss as to what exactly it indicates.  

 

Can anyone help me?

 

It is interesting to note that ALL I have ever been told is that the cancer is (a) localised and (b) located on one side only - i.e., the lower left peripheral zone base.  That anything was on the right comes as a complete surprise.  I suppose this is where biopsies are far from a perfect science.  Pigs in a poke as t'were.  It is strange to think that in the 21st Century there is not something a tad more accurate.  I am also surprised that all the surgeon mentioned was that 'it was clear'.  I do in part understand as all they really wanted was to know if the cancer had spread beyond the prostate itself.  In that regard I am relieved to know that it hasn't.

 

Any advice on the one issue will be gratefully received.  

 

Much thanks for ALL.  
User
Posted 27 Jan 2024 at 02:09

If the scale is imagined as 0-5 a man with no prostate cancer would usually be a 0 and a man with metastatic or castrate-resistant PCa would be a 5 - lit up like a Christmas tree. It is possible for healthy prostate cells to express a small amount of PSMA so a 1 might be no prostate cancer or a 3+3 which is very small, a 2 might be a PCa which is Gleason 7 etc etc.

I think it probably makes more sense if you read the report the other way round - it's not 'low grade activity' - the report is saying 'the activity indicates it is a low grade cancer'

Edited by member 27 Jan 2024 at 02:10  | Reason: Not specified

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

 
Forum Jump  
©2024 Prostate Cancer UK