External Beam RT and HDR Brachytherapy - my path

Glad you're happy with your results as I know you put a lot of research into it.

I had a routine health check in Jan 2021 and asked for my psa to be included which they agreed to do on the understanding I would refer any questions to the hospital.  It came back 0.08 which was quite a surprise as their undetectable is <0.06. 

So I rang the hospital I'm under the care of to give me a test and it came back <0.05.  Unfortunately 10 months later the test came out detectable at 0.06 which made me wonder if I'd had a pre-warning of something stirring.

Although someone on here wrote a health screening psa test might be done to less accuracy expecting a high result.  So it could be a bit risky for someone without a prostate to have such a test although it doesn't look that way for your test.  Peter

Edited by member 26 Jun 2022 at 14:41  | Reason: Not specified

I appear to have celebrated the good HbA1c result (diabetes screening) by eating a bar of chocolate and half a packet of biscuits. Oh dear...

I've always been a bit concerned about getting diabetes because my mum had it for a while, and so I do monthly fasting blood glucose finger prick tests which have been OK, even when the hormone therapy pushed it up. However, this was the first HbA1c test I've had (which measures average blood glucose over last 90 days).

It's now 3½ years since RT finished and 2¼ years since the last HT injection ran out, and 1 year since everything was just about back to normal.

I had an oncology consultation this week. I was on 6 monthly consultations but I pushed it out to 10 months because my GP had done an extra PSA/Testosterone test as part of a battery of other tests which was fine, I didn't have any problems I needed to talk to the oncologist about, and I know he's snowed under with work. PSA hasn't changed in the last 7 months and is 0.04, having risen from <0.01 as my Testosterone came back (PSA graph). Oncologist pleased. (Me too.) He asked about urinary, rectal, and erectile function, and all are normal. Still have minor rectal bleeding (quite frequent but small amounts, painless, and not incontinent), which I can ask for another referral to colorectal if I want. It has no impact on QoL, but might hide any future bowel cancer. Also asked about breasts where I have more tissue than I had before, but I think I'll just have to live with that. The Tamoxifen reduced breast glands to barely detectable, but there's still breast fat which wasn't there before treatment (and Tamoxifen has no effect on that).

He's now moved me to annual consultations, although PSA tests are still 6-monthly. Also asked me to get another Testosterone test in a year, I think because he's interested in following the graph I produce (as have several clinicians been) rather than because it's likely to be of any ongoing clinical relevance.

Sorry Lyn, can't remember what the biscuits were, but very likely something cheap like crunch creams for which I have an embarrassing soft spot.

Great to hear about your success story on HT/RT route Andy62. I hope mine is as successful.

Derek

Hi Andy,

Great results good to see some successful  Brachytherapy treatment long may it last.

Regards John.

Testosterone levels came up in conversation at The FOPS support group last night. Someone who had seen my PSA graph asked why their own Testosterone was higher (1.something nmol/L) on Prostap. The urologist said Zoladex does keep Testosterone lower than Prostap, but they're both low enough to suppress PSA.

I read the Zoladex test data some time ago, and their aim was to keep Testosterone ≤1.2nmol/L, although it seems it usually does significantly better than this. 1.2nmol/L is sometimes given as the castrate level, although there's no universal agreement on what the castrate level is, and values between 0.7 and 1.7nmol/L are used in different places.

I think that having a very low level (<0.7) when you're on time-limited hormone therapy as part of radiotherapy probably isn't important, but I can't help wondering if it might me more important if you're on lifelong hormone therapy and trying to put off castrate resistance for as long as possible.

Great report Andy. I'm the same treatment as you and about six months ahead of you. I only had two testosterone tests, but then everything returned to normal about 12 months post RT so I didn't have another testosterone test. I'm signed off from the oncologist though the urologist found my file after mislaying it for four years and now wants to follow me up. My PSA bobs around between 0.1 to 0.2. It's up to me how often to have a PSA test, I'll probably have them every six months for a while.

Anyway, a HUGE thanks for the all the advice to date (inc organizing FOPS) and the very best of luck going forward!

ps you can't beat a dark chocolate hobnob :)

Cheers,

Nick

Great stuff Andy. I've screen grabbed the graph and your comment for reference. Peter

Great news Andy onwards and upwards 👍