Benign Tissue causing PSA Rise ??

Trimix, check out my signature to read my husband's story. He had a PSA rise 17 months after surgery - the PSA got as high as 0.3 then went back down to 0.0 and has stayed there. Yes, benign tissue can generate enough PSA to become detectable.

Wow, this is really encouraging for me, thanks for the input. I will post what the results of the Avodart use is in my case in a few weeks after my PSA test.

Hi TB-Yes, I really like that he came up with this approach and it will only take a few weeks to find out the results instead of waiting 3 months for a trend.

Maybe with your slow PSA rise, you have the same situation going on, would be nice to know.

I'm hoping for good results for you.....

Avodart will target only benign prostate tissue, not cancer, and will cause it to shrink in size causing your PSA to drop. That is why when you have an enlarged prostate and you go on Avodart, your prostate shrinks and your PSA will also drop at the same time, so what I understand.

You have 2 things that will generate PSA, Cancer and also benign prostate tissue and targeting just the benign tissue is what we are trying to do and hopefully it is just the tissue that is causing my current PSA rise

Thanks Carlos- That information helps to confirm the info I am seeing and being told by my surgeon, now for some positive results please.

trimix said...
Avodart will target only benign prostate tissue, not cancer, and will cause it to shrink in size causing your PSA to drop. That is why when you have an enlarged prostate and you go on Avodart, your prostate shrinks and your PSA will also drop at the same time, so what I understand.

You have 2 things that will generate PSA, Cancer and also benign prostate tissue and targeting just the benign tissue is what we are trying to do and hopefully it is just the tissue that is causing my current PSA rise

Hello Trimix,
Avodart and Proscar both were tested to prevent prostate cancer and both showed that they do(by 20% to 25%). What I am saying is that both these chemicals affect both prostate cancer and benign prostate tissue that is androgen dependent.

That said, after surgery, in many cases there is prostate tissue left behind. If your PSA shows an exponential elevation (short doubling time) the tissue could contain cancer cells. If the elevation is minimal(as in an arithmetic elevation), then PSA is probably produced by benign tissue.

Even if there is a small residual cancer, the effect of Avodart in reducing DHT could cause the cancer to slow down and even undergo cell death. Either way, the use of Avodart at this time could only help and not hurt. Wish you the best possible outcome.

RalphV

This is an interesting topic to me.

Although I can understand how benign prostate tissue can produce trace amounts of PSA, what I don't see is how that PSA level would rise over a period of time.  The only way I could see that is if the benign tissue was growing in size or the tissue is becoming cancerous.

Am I incorrect in that line of thinking?  Would an infection of that benign tissue cause a PSA rise, hence the reason for using Avodart to rule out such an infection?

Just got back from a visit with my Surgeon/Uro

One of the questions that has come up regarding my particular situation was, why did my PSA go up after my 3 mo check (.06) to .19 at 6 months ?. Some people have thought that if my elevated PSA was really just from Benign prostate tissue that I should have had an elevated PSA at 3 mo just from that tissue and then the PSA should stabilize, which is not what happened.

I asked my Surgeon about this example and his answer made a lot of sense. He said that during surgery when the prostate and bladder are surgically seperated, that the prostate tissue that is left behind has its blood supply severely compromised. It is the blood supply to that tissue that allows the PSA it generates to get into your blood system. It takes time for that tissue to regenerate it's connections to the blood supply and he also said that the volume of that tissue will also increase with time as it settles back down and completes all of it's connections.

He is also still very convinced that based on my surgery and pathology report that he would be very surprised if I really had cancer causing my current PSA rise. We decided to take me off Avodart and let my PSA go back up and see if it levels off. He believes that my PSA will settle in around .2 based on the amount of tissue he left behind. I will have my PSA checked every 3 mo and will see what happens, I really hope he is right.

Happy Holidays Everyone !!!!

New 3 month update for me.

I had been on Avodart for just 22 days and my PSA went from .19 to .154 indicating that some or all of my PSA is being generated by benign prostate tissue left behind after from my surgery.

I have now been off Avodart for 3 months and my PSA is now .157

My surgeon and I both feel that based on my case and the amount of prostate tissue left behind from surgery that my new PSA baseline will be under .2, so far so good !!!

The next 3 month PSA test will validate my scenario even more.

It is possible to have an elevated PSA after RP if there was a significant amount of Benign Prostate tissue left behind from surgery. I feel it is important for eveyone going through this to have an idea of your own personal situation so that you can keep this scenario in mind.

Happy Saint Patricks Day !!!!

I will have a follow up meeting with my Surgeon/Uro on Monday and I will post his insite regarding my recent results.

Curt

Here's another follower. It would be great if the PSA rise were from benign tissue. Also, I read somewhere that those of us who have nerve sparing surgery have more of a chance of benign tissue having been left behind. I'd always thought that benign tissue would make its PSA known pretty soon after surgery, with a stable PSA after that, but your urologist's explanation of blood vessel regeneration makes sense. Best of luck!