Anxiously waiting

User

Posted 18 Oct 2019 at 08:08

Hi all,

its my first time posting in the community and am feeling a bit anxious about the whole diagnosis thing.

I have been under my consultant for about 5 years watching my PSA as it was a bit high, I am now 51 and it seems to range between 4.5 and 2.5 with no logical reason and so I had an MRi and biopsy done about 2 years ago which came back negative and the MRI apparently may have had something on it.

We carried on watching every 6 months and then I kept having blood tests and they kept cancelling appointments until I had been nearly 18 months between appointments. when I went back in March the consultant said as it had gone on for so long I really needed to have the more invasive biopsy. I had been reticent because my problems with urinating only came after the first biopsy and I didnt want it to get worse. In fairness I take Tamsulosin and that sorts out the problem.

I had the Biopsy on Tuesday and now I am anxiously waiting the results. Dont really know what to think, when I spoke to another surgeon, he said he had taken a look at my MRI and he couldn't see anything and so I felt a little better.

My question is , could there be a non cancerous lesion or BPH that is causing me the issues and would they do a biopsy to diagnose that? The Consultant is not very forthcoming and seems more insistent on me making the decisions rather than advising me

Thanks all

Tony

User

Posted 20 Oct 2019 at 01:39

Sorry Tony, I don’t know how your post was missed yesterday!

Do you mean that your PSA has gone up and down over that time, or it was 2.5 and has now risen to 4.5? If it was up round the 4.5 mark but fell to 2.5 after you started taking the tamsulosin that could be a really good sign; this is because if you don't have prostate cancer Tamsulosin can reduce your PSA.

They wouldn’t do a biopsy to diagnose BPH; that would be diagnosed by having a large prostate and no evidence of cancer. Your raised PSA and urinary problems could be caused by BPH or by prostatitis, or another deep seated infection perhaps lingering from the previous biopsy. The only way of knowing really is to have the full set of diagnostic tests; waiting for the results is never easy but try not to overthink it right now.

Edited by member 20 Oct 2019 at 20:23 | Reason: to correct errors in the post

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

User

Posted 20 Oct 2019 at 02:09

Hi Tony,

You mention ‘a more invasive biopsy’, which I assume will be a template biopsy. It is far more accurate in that there are more samples taken - I had 42, and there is much less chance of infection as the bowel is not perforated.

It takes half a day, and is no big thing, so go for it. Hope you get an all-clear result.

Cheers, John.

User

Posted 20 Oct 2019 at 03:25

Tony,

With regard to your comment that the Consultant is not very forthcoming and seems more intent on you making decisions than advising you, this is sometimes the case with PCa, especially where there are various possibilities. You may well need to know more about your situation before making further decisions and your Consultant can only appraise you about your situation when full tests have been done. At this point he/she cannot say whether you have PCa and may well be looking to you to decide whether you wish to proceed with a more invasive biopsy which may show nothing.

Barry

User

Posted 20 Oct 2019 at 09:35

Bollinge / Barry, he already had the biopsy on Tuesday - he is waiting for the results!

Edited by member 20 Oct 2019 at 09:38 | Reason: Not specified

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

User

Posted 20 Oct 2019 at 16:57

Lyn, your post has rather worried me. I'm taking Tamsulosin and I had no idea that it masked PSA 🙁. Does this mean that the fall in my PSA from 11 pre-RT to 4.6 six-weeks post-RT may be entirely illusory? Hoping not! I guess I'll find out more when I have my next PSA test next week, which will be 7 months post-RT. I'm taking one tablet of Tamsulosin every other day now, so if it does mask PSA hopefully it won't be by too much.

Somewhat in perplexity,

Chris

User

Posted 20 Oct 2019 at 17:44

Depends when you started the tamsulosin, Chris. Your PSA fell to 13 and then to 4.5 ... what was the level before you started bicalutimide and what was the timeline for introducing tams? If say, your current PSA is 2, you can assume the real PSA would be 4; I have never seen any info on what impact half tams dose can have.

I don’t think you would normally see PSA halving in 6 weeks from RT alone.

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

User

Posted 20 Oct 2019 at 18:23

My PSA was 31 on diagnosis. After taking bicalutimide for 6 months it fell to 13 just before RT. I then had my RT, and started taking Tamsulosin about a month into RT, so I'd been on Tamsulosin for about 10 weeks by the time of my next PSA test which was 4.6.

Best wishes,

Chris

Edited by member 20 Oct 2019 at 18:25 | Reason: Not specified

User

Posted 20 Oct 2019 at 20:20

Sorry Chris, I have made the same mistake that I have made previously and confused the different treatments:-

Tamsulosin (Flomax) reduces PSA in men that haven't got prostate cancer but has no effect on men with PCa

Alfuzosin (Xatral) makes no difference to PSA

Finasteride (Proscar) and dutasteride (Avodart) reduce PSA by about 50%

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

User

Posted 20 Oct 2019 at 20:27

Phew - glad to hear it. So my PSA reduction is genuine 😀. That's good news, and thank you for letting me know!

Cheers,

Chris

Notification

Join the online community now.