PSA after Radiotherapy and other treatments

Hi Andy and welcome

I am a bit puzzled as to why u had surgery bearing in mind that they knew it had spread to the nodes. 

Anyway in answer to your question, u have had so many different treatments its difficult to say where the Psa should be, u don't say if u are still on hormone treatment?

Psa after RT can vary but .04 is def ok as a starting point, u can get a psa bounce after RT which would mean that it has gone up by a few points. You obviously need to keep having the Psa test done regularly to observe any upward trend. Fingers crossed that any upward movement has stopped.

what was the further treatment that you talked about after December?

best regards

Steve

Hi Andy, you’ve been through a lot of treatment. Because your prostate has been removed your PSA should be undetectable.

I would ask for it to be rechecked after a month or so to see if there is a trend. If it reaches 0.2 that would be defined as a biochemical recurrence but hopefully it’s a blip.

Best wishes,

Thank you both for your message , the last treatment was Radiotherapy.  I am still on hormone injections if the PSA does get to 0.2 does that mean the cancer is growing somewhere else .  I am hoping it is a blip but as the prostate has gone i did think it would stay below 0.01.

Thanks again in advance

Andy

Hi Andy

Because you had RT after surgery (owing to the surgery not removing all cancer cells) u couldn't really expect the psa to be negligible at .01 at this stage.

 As already mentioned .04 is ok for now, in fact a good result especially if u r not on HT.

Try not to worry too much at this point, wait for the next PSA test.

Steve

Hi Andy, my PSA tests are just to 1 decimal place and whilst the 2 decimal places can be helpful to spot trends it can cause extra angst too. I think that as long as you remain below 0.1 that is acceptable. Here's hoping that will be the case.

Thank you all for this, I am still on HT and that is a good point about the 0.1 and under.  I will wait to my next PSA, which is going to be in May.

I just had another thought, my PSA test is the same time as my 3 monthly injection.  Is it best to have the PSA test before or after the injection or does it make no difference .

Andy

Andy

If u have the choice I would go for before. perhaps a truer psa result. You could also ask the specialist that question.

All the best

Steve

When I was on HT I was told by the nurse giving me the injection to have the PSA test about 10 days before and she always looked at the PSA results and discussed them with me when she gave me the injection.