8 years post Radical Surgery and 39 radition treatments

Welcome
Scout,

Welcome to the forum. I think the easy answer to your question is to follow your doctor's orders but it depends on your doctor. If it's your GP who is now supervising your follow-up, I would put in a call to your urologist's office and pose the question there. If it was your urologist who is doing the testing, I would be curious as to what he told you to do with respect to PSA follow-up testing.

I sense that the underlying, unasked question from your post is with these new PSA readings, do I have anything to worry about (as in am I looking at a recurrence of my cancer)? Given the differences between the decimal points in the readings you evidently had before your recent annual physical and the scores you received in 2011, it may be that you're looking at results from two different lab procedures or perhaps the laboratory that your doctor's office is using changed their PSA procedure or your doctor changed labs and didn't mention it. There are several different methods various laboratories use to measure PSA and the number differences may be nothing more than a procedural change. My guess, based on the information you shared, is that there is something going on with the laboratories your doctor is using.


You are a long way out from surgery and radiation with historically very low to undectable PSA readings. I wouldn't be losing too much sleep over this unless you see a trend that is definitely moving upward. A single point is not a trend and the two readings you have had in 2011 are both at 0.02.

Frankly, it doesn't make any difference whether you have 3-month or 6-month PSA tests. Except for the issue of cost, you could do a PSA test every day although I think the anxiety created by the potential of reading too much into slight variations would outweigh any real benefit such a course might have. If it makes your mind more at ease, do a couple of 3-month tests and see what is happening. If it's stable then maybe you can go back to 6-month or even annual testing -- based of course on the advice of your doctor.

Best of luck to you and congratulations for being a long term PCa survivor.

K

PSA
A urologist/surgeon once told me that undetectable psa doesn't mean 0.000. He advised mean that there is a concensus among most of the medical community that a reading of 0.05 and below are considered undetectable. When I asked how can "undetectable" contain a number, he said it has to do with the instrumentation used and its capabilities. Go figure!! I wouldn't worry too much based on your current numbers but do speak with your urologist who should be able to answer your concerns. If he can't answer your questions, then I guess it's time for a new urologist,,,,,,good luck !!!!