PSA 15 months after completing Radiotherapy

User

Posted 02 Oct 2024 at 17:40

Hi all,I had my 4 monthly PSA Test recently and my result was 0.5 which I'm delighted with and I'm now moving to 6 monthly tests.

My question is will my PSA drop further or is possible I've reached my lowest reading and going forward how much should I expect my PSA to rise before hopefully stabilising.

John

User

Posted 02 Oct 2024 at 18:39

John,

Some men reach their Nadir (lowest PSA level) sooner than others. You only really find out when a subsequent PSA reading is higher than the previous lower one which was your Nadir. I stayed on my nadir level for many months and then it started to increase slowly so that I eventually needed further treatment - hope you are more fortunate.

Did you mean your PSA was 0.05 (which was my nadir as it happened)?

Edited by member 02 Oct 2024 at 18:48 | Reason: Not specified

Barry

User

Posted 02 Oct 2024 at 19:18

Thanks for the reply, I had 3 months HT and 20 fractions of Radiotherapy and never had surgery and my PSA is 0.5

John

User

Posted 02 Oct 2024 at 20:38

I had HT for 3 yrs and 37 sessions of RT. My PSA nadir circa 12 months I think after RT completed was 0.5. Tested 3 monthly for a while 0.5, 0.3, 0.3 and 0.5 ever since. Went to 6 monthly now annual PSA tests. So my PSA dropped very slightly then back to 'nadir' level. My HT finished summer 2018.

Peter

User

Posted 03 Oct 2024 at 00:36

In general it takes between one and two years for cancer cells to die after radiotherapy. Your nadir is defined as the lowest PSA after treatment, so your nadir is now 0.3 and if by any chance you ever got a PSA of 0.2 that would become your nadir

Knowing the nadir is not too important. It's mainly used to provide a threshold for the definition of BCR which is 2.0+nadir.

There is some research that suggests the lower the nadir the lower the probability of recurrence. If the nadir is below 0.2 recurrence is very unlikely, below 0.5 is still very good. If the nadir is 1.0 or above it is worth keeping a very close eye on your PSA tests.

Dave

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