Hello,
I am 66 years old and was diagnosed with prostate cancer in February 2020.
I believe I should be considered 'lucky' as the biopsy came back with 3+3 = 6 in one core.
I followed recommendations and went down the Active Surveillance route.
I had an initial MRI scan and then another after 12 months. They tell me that the cancer hasn't got bigger but my prostate went up from 89 to 121 ml in that one year period.
My PSA level was initially about 8.5 but increased to about 11.5 after the biopsy. It's more recently gone up to 14.9 and was 14.6 on the last test this week. I was told that they would look at options if it got to 18.1 (something about the level in proportion to size).
More concerning, I was expecting an annual MRI scan (actually seeing the thing, rather than relying on a fairly unreliable test seemed to be be the way to go). However Ive been told that they don't do them annually unless the PSA level is going up (I thought mine was).
This seems a bit like waiting for a car to break down before getting it checked over at a garage.
Is this normal?
Also, I read on here that Dewsbury Hospital don't offer the best type of MRI (mpMRI?) which surprised me a bit, because I was told that I'd been sent to Dewsbury because they have a better machine than at Pinderfields.