psa rising after prostatectomy

Hi, all those figures are so low as to be undetectable as far as I am aware.  I understand that any fluctuation,especially a rise, can cause worry, but you are still getting a 0 after the decimal place.  Variations can be due to a different machine being used to do measure his test sample.  And also different sensitivity of test carried out by different labs.

How often is he being tested?  When is his next test due?

dave

I read various studies about RT after a prostatectomy and rising PSA and decided that was the route I wanted to follow. I don't want to sound alarmist but I didn't want to hang around and take any risks after having gone through the RP

Best wishes

Guy

Do you know, sometimes I wonder if we think about the impact of what we are saying? This is the first time Alidee has posted, we don't know very much at all about the diagnosis, age, pathology reports .... we do know that the urologist is happy with the PSA score and comfortable waiting 6 months before reviewing. Nor do we know anything about which hospital it is or what the tolerance zone is for their machines. It is entirely possible that the 0.01 was taken at the hospital and the 0.05 / 0.08 were done at the GP surgery. What is achieved by scaring someone who will then have to wait 5 months or so before they can do anything more?

Alidee, the general principle is that if the PSA rises to 0.2 or above - or there are three successive rises (all tested in the same lab) - then this is deemed a chemical recurrence and thought needs to be given to salvage treatment (if available / appropriate). As your OH would have to see an increase of 150% to reach 0.2 and you have only had two apparent rises (if indeed the tests were all done in the same lab), it isn't certain yet that there is any reason to be concerned. If the next test shows another rise then it will be important to talk to the specialist about possible next steps. It is just as possible that the next test will show a drop back down to the 0.04 - 0.05 range and they will just continue to monitor. My husband's PSA seems to have settled around the 0.04 mark which as you rightly say is undetectable

Edited by member 21 Apr 2015 at 02:35  | Reason: Not specified

Alidee, going back to your OP, it may reassure you if I give my PSA readings since RRP May 2013, and say that they are giving me no cause for concern at this stage.

started at Jun13<0.003 undetectable,

Oct13<0.05 undetectable,

Jan14<0.05 undetectable,

Apr14 <0.01 undetectable,*

Oct14 0.1 normal,

Mar15 0.1 normal.**

At the April 2014* results reading the Doctor I met with told me that my reading had gone up to 0.01, IE No longer undetectable, and when I explained that I was naturally concerned and asked for further treatment as there was a measurable rise, he told me that "You don't need to jump off a bridge"?  Maybe it was his way of dealing with his stress in the situation, but what a peculiar comment to make? 

A letter to my GP confirmed that the reading was in fact less than 0.01.

**The second test within 6 months in year 2 is due to my changing GP surgery and the new GP wanting their own set of figures to work from tested on their own lab's machine.

With your readings it seems perfectly normal to me that the GPs follow the generally accepted regular PSA testing regime, and that is 3 monthly in the first 12 months following the op, 6 months in the second 12 months, annually thereafter. All assuming that there are no worrying figures.  I am not surprised that you are being tested as you are.

If you are worried why not make an appointment to see your GP and ask for another test and explanation about how they do testing and what figures they regard as normal?

And finally, generally we are all in a similar situation, have all been through similar moments, but our prognosis will be determined by our body and is in the hands of professionals to manage.  There will come a point where you realise that you have to live with some uncertainty and not worry so much about tomorrow that you forget to enjoy today. 

Lynn makes good points. she generally does.  Do you have the path results and updated staging etc?

Brian may be surprised at your testing frequency, that is his opinion, not his experience, your testing frequency seems absolutely normal to me given your results.  

atb

dave

This link may help explain the complexity of PSA readings.

https://askdrmyers.wordpress.com/2015/03/10/confusing-prostate-cancer-terms/

Roy

I watched the film in that link and I saw an explanation about the whole PSA reading issue, not just the < symbol. I picked up on that I will be asking about having a super sensitive test at some time in the near future.

Rather than keeping on guessing at Alidee's OH's situation why not just wait until more information about all the PSA tests is forthcoming?

Regardless of how often he was checked in that first year the test results speak for themselves, his readings are comfortably low, taking the information from that link. IIWM I would not be worrying.

Brian, you always worry! :-)

atb to Alidee and their OH.

dave

Surely it’s important that folk are allowed to share their experiences on this site whether other users like it not. It’s what happened to them after all. It’s not for us to judge whether we like what they say or not. If we feel a post is incorrect then rather than us users making a judgement whether to criticise the person (directly or indirectly) who has posted in good faith, we should leave it to the moderators to decide whether a post should be picked up on or not for its content. We can even report a post to the moderators if we feel that strongly about it. Criticising someone’s post, which was made in good faith, could deter that person from posting information in future that could be helpful to others or result in that person giving up on the forum as a helpful tool to contact others going through a similar ordeal. We should be encouraging each other not criticising each other.

Apologies Alidee for bringing this up on your post ……… but I believe that everyone who has posted about their experiences on your post have done so in good faith and have described their own personal experiences and us users are mature enough to decide what is helpful and what is not.

Welcome to the forum ……. You will find lots of useful advice here and in addition there are many other support tools available to you. If you haven’t got the details of these already then please ask.

Take good care and please keep us all up to date on how it goes with your man. The experiences of others helps us all to understand a bit better what is happening to us in our individual experiences and helps us not to feel so alone in what we are going through.

dl