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Posted 10/3/2012 7:42 PM (GMT 0)
New member from CT. For 4 years my PSA has been 0.04 and today it was a 0.09. Doc said more blood work in 4 months. Anyone else had this problem? I was a Gleason 6.
Posted 10/3/2012 7:54 PM (GMT 0)
Welcome to the site that no one wants to be a member of.

It could have just been a blip... Not much you can do except get another blood test. You could ask your URO to do one sooner.
Posted 10/3/2012 7:54 PM (GMT 0)
Welcome moss to Hw, sorry you have to join us. I know what you mean, as mine jumped from .04 and started climbing after 2 1/2 years. I can't say that yours will copy mine, but mine has leveled off-sorta, still staying under the .2 trigger I will use for radiation treatment of it.

Not offering you any false hope or undue pessimism, but there's a theory of benign tissue left over from surgery giving off psa, as well as natural production from other places. I'd advise a wait and see attitude, as hard as that may be to do, but as a G6 with 4 years under your belt, anything you do have will most likely be very slow growing and you have plenty of time to retest, educate yourself and see what the long term issue is. It may be a fluke test, or it may be something more serious.

Could you make up a signature for us with the key points of your journey so far, that was we can better understand your situation.
Posted 10/3/2012 7:58 PM (GMT 0)
Like James C says. What was your pre-op biopsys info. and you post-op info, what was your treatment, surgery, seeds or radiation. etc.
Posted 10/3/2012 9:03 PM (GMT 0)
Eight months aga I had a PSA test that showed a jump from <.01 to .094. Of course I freaked out and called my URO who ordered another PSA test in 3 weeks and it came back as <.01. I have had 2 additional PSA tests since (the last one this week) and both came back <.01.
There is such a thing as lab error. I hope that is what happened to you.
Posted 10/4/2012 2:23 AM (GMT 0)
I vote for a retest. Could just be a bad day at the lab.
Posted 10/4/2012 2:49 AM (GMT 0)
you could be on your way to recurrance, or may not. one higher test will not tell the tale. you need at least 2 or more tests in the months ahead to see if the .09, was accurate, and is it a fluke or a trend. if it slowly keeps moving up, especially once its gets over .10, hoping it doesnt,
then you might be confirming recurrrance.

on the other hand, it may be a fluke or a twictch, future tests should prove or disprove this possibility

david
Posted 10/4/2012 5:55 AM (GMT 0)
The ultra-sensitive test tends to jump around a little and can lead to a lot of PSA anxiety. Does starting secondary treatment a little sooner lead to better overall outcomes? I don't think that has ever been demonstrated.. But a lot of men have suffered needless worry when the 0.00 test jumps around a little..It seems to me the standard test will let you know soon enough your journey is not over...JMHO..
Posted 10/4/2012 6:39 PM (GMT 0)
I had no treatments whatsoever. I was a Gleason 6 at surgery. You guy's are a big help cause I worry a lot like most everyone does. 64 years old retired but working part time.
Posted 10/4/2012 7:14 PM (GMT 0)
about three years after my open RP surgery I had a PSA measurement jump from 0.04 to 0.4 in four months. I had an immediate retest and the reading came back as 0.1 and remained there for several years.

So the good news was the 0.4 reading was probably some kind of lab equipment error. However the bad news was that after several years of very low readings I had doubled to 0.1. However, I then stayed at 0.1 for 3 full years before any further rise began.

FWIW, I just saw my uro today and he reminded me that the fact that I went 7 full years from surgery to needing salvage radiation was a very good sign and that even though I was T3b and then had an enlarged lymph node (which was targeted as part of my SRT), my PC has so far been pretty non-aggressive.

So, even if your 0.09 reading is real, you have been having a very slow rise, such as I had, and perhaps your future readings will also remain stable or rise only very slowly as mine did.
Posted 10/4/2012 10:23 PM (GMT 0)
Again, doc is my wifes first cousin so I'm sure I'll be treated like family again. Four years ago he fit me in for surgery on his day off so I didn't have to wait three months. I only waited 4 weeks and that to me was like 15 years.
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