10 years later...

Grumpenstein

Greetings, 10 years ago I went through a RP and a month later had 36 treatments of RT. The last 9 of those years after, my PSA was always 0.01 but now seems to be on the incline again, low but different at 0.07 then 0.05. The 0.02 drop 6 months later confused me, is that normal? Thanks in advance.

VascodaGama

Hi,

Such tiny variation could be due to equipment "noise" (calibration tolerances). The constant value of 0.01 along the years could also have been much lower in the bracket of 0.00X but the tester indicated it at the lower limit of detection (LLD of that equipment).

The remission values in IMRT done alone as prime are PSA values lower than 1.0 ng/ml. Recurrence is usually considered after 3 consecutive increases but treatment is commonly recommended for PSA above 2.0.

Radiation treatments do not kill the whole gland. Benign prostatic cells recover and are alive in Prime IMRT, producing tiny amounts of PSA serum.

Congratulations for the ten years plus in remission.

VG

On_A_Journey

@Grumpenstein Yes, readings can go up and down. I am experiencing biochemical recurrence and since my nadir in May 2018, my readings have either increased exponentially, increased linearly, not changed at all, or decreased (once). Weird, huh.

Old Salt

Celebrate the drop and keep following your PSA using the same lab and test method.