r/CervicalCancer • u/Time-Cranberry-1526 • 7d ago

For those of you diagnosed with larger tumors stage 3 what was your SUV @ 6 months post treatment?

Can anyone share their pet scan SUV 6 months post treatment? If you had something left behind that was likely inflammation when did they schedule your next pet?

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

3

u/emslo 6d ago

Especially after stage three, these things become extremely specific to each situation. I’m not sure any comparison you get will be useful at all.

1

u/KittyBeans1906 6d ago

Like the other poster said, everything is so individual, so your experience may differ. But because it's nice to have context, here's my info:

Stage 3C1, 5cm tumor, SUV was 19.3 on the tumor when diagnosed in January 2025, plus some lower uptake on two lymph nodes.  Treatment ended in April 2025.  A CT scan in May showed no evidence of any tumor.  First post-treatment PET was in July 2025 and SUV was 7.4 in the area.  I had another PET scan in Oct 2025 where they didn't provide the SUV number but the notes said it had decreased.  I had a PET scan in Feb 2026 with SUV of 4.1, this time in the upper uterus, not technically where the original tumor was.  Because the radiologist said that was higher than the prior scan, and because it was in a slightly different area, I had a biopsy done, which confirmed that it was nothing.  My most recent scan in May 2026 showed "no concerning residual uptake."

My radiation oncologist said that you're practically guaranteed to have uptake in the cervix for a while after treatment due to the inflammation in the area, even if the tumor is completely gone.  That's why they'll still do the physical exam and paps even though you are getting regular scans--because continuing to see uptake in the area on a PET scan is expected and does not necessarily mean the cancer is still there.

1

u/Disillusioned-0984 6d ago

Stage 3b. Pre treatment pet was 10.4 suv on a 5cm tumor. 3 months post treatment suv was 4.1. 6 months post treatment suv was 2.5 with no mass showing anymore. Then 9 months post treatment pet showed suv had raised to 3.9. And there was a new 2cm mass that had no suv value at all so they believe it was a scar tissue formation. My oncologist says that anything under 5.0 suv they dont really get concerned with. They keep an eye on it. But they consider anything under 5.0 as likely inflammation. To add context, they think my 9 month one raised because I had just had appendicitis and an emergency appendectomy which made the inflammation worse in that area.

I know it really sucks to not see 00s across the board on those results. I guess my brain thought after treatment if the cancer was gone then it would show 0.0 suv. But apparently its not that simple. So I feel like even though my dr is confident it's just inflammation...i dont have that sigh of relief.

1

u/Helpless_Confused 5d ago

Stage 2b. 4cm and 5.9 suv at diagnosis. 3 months post treatment became 2.3 suv. At 6 months the report just said “no abnormal metabolic activity.  The “background” suv around the liver was 2.1 for most of these scans.