psa at three years up half of one percent ?

Radiation failure is defined as 3 successive rises in PSA. PSA will flucutate just due to lab differences and your husband still has a prostate which will generate some psa. His doctor is correct.
JohnT

Hi Wiggyann,

I chose IMRT as my primary treatment. My PSA history is in my signature. I was told by my oncologist prior to treatment that anything less than a 1.00 after radiation was considered a success. I have also found this reference in some medical articles online. There is most likely some viable prostate tissue and it will produce PSA. As I understood it the normal cells can recover better than the cancerous cells after radiation. The DNA of the cancerous cells apparently suffer more damage from radiation. Thus there may be no or little volume in the way of canerous cells but some normal cells survive.

Also, as Steve noted, any test has varition in it. I am a process engineer and work daily with processes and statistical control. I won't attempt a lesson in this but suffice it to say that there is "normal variation" in any measurment. Depending on the test it can be very low or very high in some cases. The .05 increase is 11% variation. Ask your doctor what the normal variation is for the test.

The "bump" typically occurs within the first two to three years after treatment. I suppose it could happen this far out but have doubts. If the increase has only been .05 after 40+ years I would agree with your doctor. Relax.

Best to you and your husband.
Don