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Does sex affects PSA result?

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Posted 5/16/2008 7:28 PM (GMT 0)
  Pardon me if this has been discussed earlier (I checked but didn't find any post relating to this). I was wondering that since the body absorbed the sperm after sex, if that would affect a PSA result. Would not want to do anything that will affect my coming PSA.   Kris
Posted 5/16/2008 7:54 PM (GMT 0)
PSA (prostate-specific antigen) is only produced by prostate cells, so if all of your prostate cells are gone, your PSA should theoretically drop to 0. Ideally all of the cells, malignant and normal, were removed with surgery. You should only have a detectable PSA if you have prostate cells remaining in your body. Sperm will not produce PSA.
Posted 5/16/2008 9:11 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Lungman

Thanks for your input. Guess I'm kind of confuse as to why some people who had surgery to remove the prostate with negative margins and still get a rise in PSA after a few months.

For someone who has negative margins per post surgery pathologist report, is it correct to say that the only way to have a detectable PSA is if the cancer had spread prior to the surgery?

Kris

 

Posted 5/16/2008 9:32 PM (GMT 0)

Kris,

Three possibilities that I know of...

1) Pathology report could be wrong

2) Some cancer cells outside the tissue examined could remain (not likely if margins were deemed negative)

3) Cancer returns later, which it does in a significant percentage of cases where the Gleason score was very high.  That is why, despite a good pathology report, I am likely to have radiation later this year.

Posted 5/16/2008 9:57 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Kris
I read somewhere in forum that sex nearer to a psa test (24 hrs) may affect psa results. But that is if you have a prostate, so not relevant if the whole prostate is removed during surgery.

If someone who has negative margins per post surgery pathologist report, I suppose if there is a psa rise it means that the cancer had spread prior to or during surgery ( microscopic spread). Sometimes a minuscule of a spread may result in a psa rise only after many months/years? after surgery. That's why we all worry just before a psa test.

I do have a question. If sperm and testosterone does not affect psa test why do people who has a detectable psa (spread) after surgery, given Hormone Therapy ( to reduce testosterone/production of sperm )?
Posted 5/16/2008 10:04 PM (GMT 0)

Cancer cells can escape the prostate before or during surgery. As DanamanBob said, this is more likely if the Gleason score is high. Or there may be some normal prostate cells left behind still attached to your plumbing.

They can then lie dormant for many years before before they start multiplying and producing detectable amounts of PSA. This is why PSA tests will be part of our lives for at least the next ten years.

Hormone therapy, as I understand it, does not kill the cancer cells -- it just slows down the multiplication.

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