PSA OF .4 8 YEARS AFTER PROSTATE REMOVAL I WAS 54 AT THE TIME
bfischer15
Posts: 1
Joined: Feb 2012
Feb 13, 2012 - 12:02 pm
After having my prostate removed 8 years ago with a gleason reading of 7 my psa reading was .01 for that period.Recent readings have been .1-.4.What options should I consider?.
Welcome to the forum and so sorry that you've seen your PSA creep back up after so many years. Most urologists consider that a PSA of 0.2 and rising after a RP is evidence of a biochemical recurrence. This means that prostate cancer is gowing somewhere in your body although it may not yet show up on any scans or imaging techniques.
The common procedure at this point is to undergo salvage radiation treatment to the area that surrounds where your prostate used to be which is the most likely location of most of the cancer although, frankly, it could be anywhere and very likely is even if only at the microscopic level at this point. Hormone therapy in conjunction with radiation treatment has been shown to improve the efficacy of the overall treatment.
I recommend you disuss with your medical team the protocol for salvage radiation in conjunction with hormone therapy.
It would be useful for other members of the forum if you could share a bit more about yhour medical history such as the PSA history and Gleason score of your initial diagnosis and what the post surgery pathology report indicated in terms of margins and whether or not the Gleason score was upgraded after surgery.
What you are experiencing is not uncommon. About 35% of men who have RP see a recurrence within five years of surgery and 40% see a recurrence within ten years. Seems like it is now time for the next step.
Joined: Mar 2010
Welcome
Welcome to the forum and so sorry that you've seen your PSA creep back up after so many years. Most urologists consider that a PSA of 0.2 and rising after a RP is evidence of a biochemical recurrence. This means that prostate cancer is gowing somewhere in your body although it may not yet show up on any scans or imaging techniques.
The common procedure at this point is to undergo salvage radiation treatment to the area that surrounds where your prostate used to be which is the most likely location of most of the cancer although, frankly, it could be anywhere and very likely is even if only at the microscopic level at this point. Hormone therapy in conjunction with radiation treatment has been shown to improve the efficacy of the overall treatment.
I recommend you disuss with your medical team the protocol for salvage radiation in conjunction with hormone therapy.
It would be useful for other members of the forum if you could share a bit more about yhour medical history such as the PSA history and Gleason score of your initial diagnosis and what the post surgery pathology report indicated in terms of margins and whether or not the Gleason score was upgraded after surgery.
What you are experiencing is not uncommon. About 35% of men who have RP see a recurrence within five years of surgery and 40% see a recurrence within ten years. Seems like it is now time for the next step.
K