Rising PSA

Hi, you will receive many replies soon I have no doubt. The psa can rise for many reasons, but that is still relatively low. My husband's initial reading on diagnosis was 1200 and after degaralix went down to around 5 and never under 1.0. He had bone mets too. The pain in his hips may not be related to his cancer either, but agree it is quite frightening for him.

You have come to the right place, so avoid Google and stay with us for help.

Gina

Hi Moira (Help ), I think you were quite right to challenge the rise and get to see your oncologist in 3 months.  I am not an expert on bone mets, but I have always understood that intermittent pain is unlikely to be cancer.  I have some bone pain, but I hope it is caused by the HT rather than cancer.  Hopefully others will be along to update us.

Thank you so much Gina xx

Thank you so much David.

Hi Help - you may see information about the PSA bounce phenomenon- typically 12-18 months after radiotherapy : however, I would expect any bounce to be masked by the hormone treatment (degaralix) which reduces testosterone, and PSA would usually be close to zero (as it was in your hubbys case)…. so the cancer cells should be “dormant” until the hormone therapy is stopped.  When they then “wake-up “ as their food supply is restored, they try to grow by dividing (normal cell growth) and the body rejects them as the immune system can’t identify the damaged DNA structure (cancer cells can’t repair themselves).  In your hubbys case, it may be that the hormone therapy has stopped working and testosterone is getting through the the cancer cells (or they have found an alternative food supply - often referred to as castration resistant cancer).  If this has happened, they will try to divide and you will get the bounce in PSA, as it is released into the body as the cancer cells die.  That’s why his oncologist is relaxed about it at the moment: he hasn’t breached the 2.0 PSA threshold.  He is right to request an earlier PSA test.  If it was me, I would be requesting one in 3 months minimum, but preferably 6 weeks.  AW

Thank you David

Thank you so much for your informative response, it is really appreciated.