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User
Posted 25 Oct 2022 at 22:41

My husband had a PSA done 9/6 and his level was 81.2 referred to urologist and new test was done today, level is now 87.1 CT scheduled for this afternoon. Is this considered a rapid increase? This is all new to us. 

User
Posted 26 Oct 2022 at 01:10

I'm going to assume by 9/6 you mean 6/9 or to be unambiguous 6 September. That was 49 days ago.

This article cautions against making predictions based on PSA increase in newly diagnosed patients, but suggests it is useful in dealing with recurrence. So my comments after this point should be taken in the context that they cannot give a reliable prognosis in your case.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3375697/

Any kind of growth fall into different mathematical categories. Cancer falls in to a class called exponential growth. The mathematics of any exponential growth can always be summarised by one figure, The doubling time.

Given two readings at different times it is possible to calculate the doubling time.

https://www.doubling-time.com/compute.php

Feeding your details into the calculator shows a doubling time of 484 days, or about a year and four months.

Now the tests are not always accurate and weren't very far apart time wise so there are possibilities of errors, until we have more information doubling time of 12 months or 18 months would be within the margins of error. Also cancer doesn't always follow mathematical rules, so it may change for better or worse.

A doubling time of less than six months is considered bad for recurrent prostate cancer.

So a doubling time of over 12 months suggests the answer to your question "is this a rapid increase?" is No.

 

Dave

User
Posted 26 Oct 2022 at 07:00

CT scan "this afternoon" so you should be getting a full picture from your urologist in the near term.

Regardless of the results of your various test results, you're in the right place here so if/when you get more information please keep posting here, plus it can be helpful to give a summary of your husband's story on "my account", "profile".

Jules

User
Posted 26 Oct 2022 at 13:37
The increase isn't a concern in its own right - could just be a bit of inflammation. However, a 'normal' PSA reading would be less than 4 so it is the fact that his PSA is in the 80s that is causing concern.
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

 
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