Psa after radiotherapy

Hi . I think it would be a good idea to contact your Oncologist and tell him what your PSA score is. After my hubby's brachytherapy and radiotherapy treatment his PSA went right down, it's currently 0.18. He was discharged from his Oncologist back to GP 3 years ago and has a 6 monthly blood test. He was told if it goes up over 2.0 to get in touch.

Hi Raven and welcome.

I wouldn't worry too much at this stage. Obviously the lower the better but 4 is ok as long as it continues on a downward trend.

PSA can reach a Nadir point and sometimes bounces back up again by a small amount.

After RT PSA can continue to go down for some years , mine is still going down, albeit slowly, 4 years after RT finished.

If it's of any comfort there was someone on here who posted his PSA after RT at about the same as yours and his next PSA showed a reduced level.

I would ask your GP to do another PSa in about 3-4 months,, hopefully will have gone down.

Regards

Steve

Hi Mrs Bjh,  still with the oncologist haven't been sent back to Dr yet i was curious cause he won't be drawn on what happens next as to what the procedure is after radiotherapy. The only thing he says is that the PSA level is no where near as low as it should be. Got another test in October and then in February and we see where we go from there. Having difficulty with the uncertainty . I'd really like to be told what's going to happen, but I suppose that's impossible to say 

Are you also taking hormone therapy?

What were previous PSA results (is it rising or falling?)?

In my case, which was also brachytherapy plus radiation they put me on Zoladex for 2 years and my PSA was down to about 0.05. But despite this "success" the cancer has returned (about a year after I stopped Zoladex), but, thank goodness only locally They have put me back on Zoladex  6 months on 6 months off. The PSA is still low. One snag is that I had so much radiation the first time, they do not want to go in again.  So when it come to "what happens next" further operations may not be offered. This means some kind of drug for years and hopefully it won't spread. Apart from the drugs if, Raven23, you are worried my own view (I am not a doctor) is that you should ask for a scan. 

Hi Heinous, no not on hormone therapy, the level has come down from 4.6 to 4.2, however I was told that it should be by now between 0.5 and 1.5 after this time period. My oncologist has said he is waiting for it to level off before we move to the next step, but refused to be drawn on what the next step is. I was curious if anybody knew what the next step might be. 

I was hoping that someone has been at the stage I am now and could possibly advise

Sadly I can't. I know that the fall is slower without hormones, but it does continue for a long time after radiotherapy. So it is a question of waiting until it stops falling.

There's several options available, but they will look at the whole picture at that time.

Hopefully there is someone whose path is closer to yours. 

Good Luck!

Thanks Heinous. 

If I have any developments I shall inform eveyone, so people can have a heads up.