PET Scan SUV question

I've only had 2 PET's in my 4 years since stage IV… but, one of them did show FDG uptake in an area on my knee, where there was no lesion. It was an immune response from an overly aggressive cycling workout. Sooo… with your question posed, I thought I'd see what I can pull up. There isn't a lot of definitive evidence out there, but I did find this: "As systemic treatments for melanoma have advanced, there has been increasing interest in using FDG avidity not only for staging and monitoring, but as a predictive biomarker to assess prognosis and effectiveness of therapy" —– https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5028983/

I'm not sure what it would do for the high "glow" number on your lesion… but it does seem that it might indicate your immune system has gone after it. Unfortunately, it seems at this point, that you'll probably have to await the next set of scans, to see if it begins to shrink. I vote for sticking with hopeful. : )

Hi Cindy. The small tumor that my husband had in his parotid gland got much bigger, very quickly, within a couple of days after his first combo treatment of Yervoy/Opdivo. it doubled in size and extended behind his ear, causing him tremendous pain.  It lasted about 4 days, and then started to shrink, until it was gone. A recent PET scan showed no trace of it. I don't know if that could explain a high SUV or not, but I vote for hopeful!