psa

my psa wenr from 12 had a biopsy no cancer 3 yrs later went to 25 another biopsy no cance now 2 yrs later its 29....im 75 i had enough biopsys advice whats the highest psa ahybody know

Hi Ive had 3 diff urologists as i said went from 12 to 25 to 29 psa 2 biopsys in the past 5 yrs just went thru 3 weeks of a strong penecilyn antibiotic and after takeg the pills my psa went from 27    to 29 they want to do another biopsy first 2 showed no cancer im 75 yrs old think i had enough of urologists 

I have a friend about your age that went through a similar deal...The 3rd or 4th biopsy found cancerous cells...

Only reason he did radiation treatment was that both is parrents were alive and in their late ninties...So he has a reasonable expectation to live that long himself.

Suggest you contact John T and get an earful of education, his journey and yours maybe are the same situation and look what he went through in trying to find out the facts, finally did find out with the correct doc doing such in quick order.....a real lesson to be learned about the 'experts' on PCa. I really think you two should talk directly, you have everything to gain by doing so.

Nico7100-   have seen Psa's over  10,000 level,  high psa levels are not an exponential equivalency type of comparison, whereby the guy with 8,000 is way worse off than a guy with 3,000.....might be worse off...but PCa has sooooo many exceptions and weirdness to it that it can drive you crazy.  Some of the very worst aggressive PCa's are so bad they don't give off Psa's to measure....it is very rare...but happens. This is an example of how wild PCa can become. Majority of people have either indolent or highly treatable forms of PCa is the good news, other fit in to mid and high risk scenarios.

Joko_ John T herein has done more types of scanning methods than anybody on this forum, period (talk to him about such). Including Combidex which is not available since sometime in 2010, it may be coming back and is by far the superior scanning method in comparison....but nothing is of perfection about PCa. Anything we discuss on PCa has exceptions, imperfections, non total definity....don't take my word for it...but you'll find out in time. A few docs might even tell you honestly about the value of scannings, most sugar coat and it makes great sales and marketing for their ledgers.

Clear  scans doesn't guarantee you are clear, but again you don't have to believe me, but just look at others histories and the real facts and what Dr. Strum has written about such. There are other detection methods to try, but even biopsies have some issues or can miss the target area. You are dealing with imperfect sciences and variables with PCa. Some find cure or fit those parameters it seems, some others find longer term control of the disease. Not knowing exactly what you are dealing with is maybe the hardest part about having PCa....My best words of advice are simple: question everything and all the time.

Post Edited (zufus) : 12/26/2010 7:20:32 AM (GMT-7)

Joko

One thing you might consider doing that wouldn't cost much or involve any physical discomfort is that if your biopsies were NOT done at a major cancer center, you can have the biopsy slides sent to a top notch pathologist - for example at Johns Hopkins, for an expert review.

Also, there are other tests, most importantly "free PSA" which are simple blood tests, and which give a lot more info than just plain PSA about the possibility of cancer.

So don't think of your choice as simple a decision between "get another biopsy" and "ignore it". There are other options.

As others have said in this thread, John T. is the "go to guy" on this here.

It's good that your rate of increase in PSA over the last two years is very low, only 8%. Still, some cancers don't give off much PSA so if it were me I'd do some more testing, even if not a repeat biopsy quite yet.

Here's more on the urine test that Fairwind mentioned in the prior post, for those who want to read further.

Int Braz J Urol. 2010 Nov-Dec;36(6):665-9.
The novel prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3) biomarker.

Bourdoumis A, Papatsoris AG, Chrisofos M, Efstathiou E, Skolarikos A, Deliveliotis C.

University Department of Urology, Sismanoglio Hospital, Athens, Greece, Greece.
Abstract

PCA3 is a prostate specific, nonprotein coding RNA that is significantly over expressed in prostate cancer, without any correlation to prostatic volume and/or other prostatic diseases (e.g. prostatitis). It can now easily be measured in urine with a novel transcription-mediated amplification based test. Quantification of PCA3 mRNA levels can predict the outcome of prostatic biopsies with a higher specificity rate in comparison to PSA. Several studies have demonstrated that PCA3 can be used as a prognostic marker of prostate cancer, especially in conjunction with other predictive markers. Novel PCA3-based nomograms have already been introduced into clinical practice. PCA3 test may be of valuable help in several PSA quandary situations such as negative prostatic biopsies, concomitant prostatic diseases, and active surveillance. Results from relevant clinical studies, comparative with PSA, are warranted in order to confirm the perspective of PCA3 to substitute PSA.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21176272