PSA up after radiotherapy

Hello Vickie (Willow67) 

Welcome back! The PSA rise after radiotherapy can be due to the Radiotherapy and is know as PSA bounce and a rise of 0.362 isn't great.

The rule of thumb after Radiotherapy (which keeps on working after treatment finishes) is:-

* You reach your nadir (or lowest) PSA 18 months after RT.

* Further treatment would be considered if you have 3 consecutive rises or a rise of 2 full points.

I hope this puts your mind at rest.

Best wishes - Brian.

Thank you ,Brian. 

Yes ,you have put my mind at rest(a mind which does look on the worst side at times).

Best wishes 

Hi Willow

I think that's its just to soon to be thinking the worst although I understand y you are.

If  the .267 was done  Aug/Sept then the body will still be affected by the HT.

So .629 I presume was done when HT over so a rise quite likely.  

Probably the next PSA will tell u more , I assume about 3 months time but as long as an upward trend doesn't set in hopefully all will be ok.

All the best

Steve

Hi !

It’s good to be alert, especially when PSA go up and don’t stay stable or even go down.

After HT Testosterone starts to come back and that might start a stabilization of the PSA as well. And then there is the PSA bounce which also may be frustrating.

Like Millibob says reaching Nadir can be a slow (and stressful) process.

It could be good to see if it’s possible to have PSMA Pet Scan to see if there are PSMA avid spots. His PSA is good enough to have very accurate picture. It might not be active cancer because prostate cancer cells can take at least up to 2 years before they die but hopefully they don’t see any spots that was not treated.

So, of course it’s not easy to relax and probably you shouldn’t worry but I think it’s good that your’e alert and want to be on top of it.

My surprise is why the choose short term HT if he was T3 but the medical team and MO knows best 

Best wishes - Ulf

Thanks Steve, I'm not sure what I was expecting to be honest but they are re testing after Christmas so hopefully it will be down a bit.

Thank you Ulf.

No prospect of any scans,we were told PSA test is the way to monitor it.

He had a bone scan before RT and there was no spread and it was classed as T3 as it was all contained but it was against the capsule wall, otherwise it would have been T2.

Hopefully, in 8 weeks, the PSA will be stable.

Best wishes 

Good Afternoon Ulf (Ulfhbg) 

in the UK we would all love to have a PSMA PET-CT scan to chase up any nasty little buggers that have gone "walkabout" however the cost to the NHS is between £2500.00 and £3550.00 per test!!

You can see why the don't like to give them unless a necessity.

Many thanks for your continued support across the Community - it's very much appreciated.

Best wishes - Brian.

Hi Millibob !

Here in Sweden we also wish that more could have PSMA Pet Scan because of the way it changes the diagnostic landscape for us prostate cancer patients and I know the scan costs a lot.

I have been fortunate to be able to pay privately but my totally personal opinion is that PSMA Pet Scan should be made much more available especially in the public healthcare such as the UK, Sweden any etc.

Anyway we are suffering the same way because of costs but I think that’s one of the good things being together in great forums, advocating for good help earlier because that might have positive impact.

Prostate cancer is highly individual and even public healthcare needs to do diagnos and treatment more individualized and one extremely good part of that is more use of diagnostic tools like PSMA Pet Scan.

Thanks for letting me part of a fantastic job and you’re doing a great job 

Best wishes - Ulf