Prostate Cancer reoccurrence after RT

LogsB 4 days ago

2 replies
141 subscribers
184 views

I am very new to all this, having finished Radio Therapy along with T-Blockers in November 2023. I was told my PSA should drop to a very low level but with RT there may be a bounce. In March 2024 my PSA was 0.089, June - 0.55, September 0.683, and December - 1.1

This looks like a ramp to me rather than a bounce, increasing by 0.4 every three months it looks like I will be up to the threshold of 2 in 6 months where further investigation is deemed necessary.

On the positive side, I was diagnosed with stage 2, 1 core of 17 showing positive, but Gleeson score of 7. Due to chronic lower back pain I had a bone scan in October which showed nothing worrying.

My question is, is my PSA typical? My Oncologist at my last phone meeting said it was due to the Testosterone levels recovering. But previously my understanding was that Radio Therapy was supposed to reduce the PSA count.

I would appreciate any thoughts or information.

Alpine Wanderer 4 days ago

I would agree with your oncologist: as your testosterone returns, your surviving prostate cells are recovering and producing PSA again. what type of radiotherapy did you have? The standard 60gy EBRT? Or brachytherapy as a mono therapy? AW

Alwayshope 4 days ago

Hi LogsB .

At the moment you could be having 2 things going on at the same time. The testosterone is recovering, as are you good prostate cells which can result in a new baseline PSA. At the same time there is a phenomenon called the PSA bounce which can occur around 12 months after the end of radiotherapy, particularly in younger men and those who have had either Brachytherapy or SBRT. Things should settle down after about 18 months when all the debris from the radiotherapy has been cleared out your body by the lymphatic system. It is too early to ask for something like a PSMA PET scan as the radiotherapy is still working and residual dead cells in the prostate could still show up and result in over treatment.

More from this forum

Prostate Cancer reoccurrence after RT