Hi waleygator, - No, riding a bike should have no effect on PSA readings in a man whose Prostate has been completely removed by radical surgery. Let me suggest that you ask for printed copies of your PSA readings, now and in the future and, preferably, track the actual readings in a log or graph for your records.
"Undetectable" can mean different things to different people, including individual Doctors. Much depends on the assay materials being used in their PSA testing. Routine monitoring of post-surgical PSA readings are normally done with the STANDARD PSA assay (test) at most major Cancer centers (Mayo and Johns Hopkins are two with which I am directly familiar), which usually has a reliability threshold of 0.1 ng/ml and is reported to the tenth of a nomogram. Anything below that figure is reported as LESS THAN 0.1 (<0.1 ng/ml) and is the long-standing definition of CLINICALLY "undetectable" PSA results.
The introduction of Hyper-and/or Ultra-sensitive (the terms are often used interchangeably) provide readings down to the hundredths, or even to the thousandths of a Nanogram. These are infinitesimal readings of PSA presence, since a nanogram is already just ONE BILLIONTH of a gram. As the sensitivity gets lower, so does the chance for, clinically meaningless variations in such readings, due to such factors as what is known as "noise", that has no biological source but can artificially affect such sensitive results.
"Nervous Nellies" as you refer to them, are often needlessly stressed out by such changes in individual test results. Such minute (my-noot) variations up and down often have little, if any, real clinical significance. This is opposed to the steadily climbing readings in continuing successive tests that MAY have real significance in the determination of possible treatment failure. Your next PSA test result should help clarify your personal situation. The most widely accepted, classic Standard for surgical failure is a series of 2 successive readings of 0.2 ng/m, or more.
MOST Physicians would not take further treatment action until that traditional Standard is reached, but there are some particularly aggressive Doctors, who MAY act at .05 ng/ml on the hyper-sensitive scale. A few Radiation Oncologists, seem to be employing adjuvant and/or salvage radiation techniques based upon such early hyper-sensitive PSA results. Such early action remains controversial and only time will eventually provide the results to either support or contradict such secondary treatment judgments. REMEMBER, we are talking about
ROUTINE PSA monitoring here and NOT the advanced disease PCa patient, often being treated by a Medical Oncologist in whom such ultra-sensitive results MAY be of more significance.
I hope this has enhanced your understanding. Good luck! -
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