PSA rise after RP

denardis

New member
Little nervous what to expect going forward. Had RP done Oct 21. PSA taken every 3 months. initially was .04, then .07, .14,.1, .2, .7 and most recent up to 1.3. So almost doubling with every 3 month PSA test. Did petscan at .7 but did not see anything. Doing another petscan next week. At this rate I’ll be above 15 within a year. Likely will have to be on ht. Urologist said survival with my condition is 5 years. Any similar experiences?? Tough thoughts to think about. Any thoughts please? Thank you!
 
Last edited:
I would suggest you go to Mayoclinic.org and join the prostate group. There are people with all experiences there. I would also reach out to the Mayo Clinic on this site.
 
Yes the Mayoclinic prostate group is a place to pose your questions and ask for the thoughts of many knowledgeable people in that group.

It looks like you've had a recurrence (BCR) - sorry about that and it is upsetting. A PSMA PET scan has a 50% chance of detecting PCa when PSA is 0.5, so if nothing was detected at 0.7 it is not unusual. I understand that some RO's let the PSA continue to rise until the PSMA-PET scan detects something, so that any salvage radiation can accurately target the location of the PCa.

After my RP, salvage treatment occurred soon after my PSA rose to 0.12 (about a year after). At this point hormone therapy and radiation was initiated. This may seem early, but based on my Gleason score and other factors I was high risk - so hit is hard, and hit it early. The radiation targeted the prostate bed and pelvic lymph nodes as the BCR was most likely limited to this area. After 33 salvage radiation treatments and 6 months of ADT, my PSA has been below 0.01 for about a year now.

In your case, at a PSA of 1.3 the PSMA-PET should detect something (unless you have a type of tumor that doesn't express PSMA, in which case a different type of PET scan is needed). Based on my limited experience and layman's understanding, without another PET scan, I am not sure why your urologist says your survival is 5 years. There are many effective treatments available now that give us realistic hope to push this disease back into remission, or at least manage it for many, many years.
 
You must log in or register to post here.
Back
Top