Sue, in answer to your question about
PSA, yes they check his psa about
once a month. It was about
180 at diagnosis and since then has gotten as low as .9 with his initial run with lupron, and has climbed back up to over 500 a couple of times. Usually it is a gradual up and a gradual down. There were times when the drs would say don't look at psa, but it almost always IS a good indicator of what is happening with the cancer. They tend to look at the whole picture of how he looks, how he feels AND the psa and alk phos numbers. Scans don't always show everything either, but they can help create a more accurate picture of what is and what is not going on. His most recent psa was 271 last week. My husband also puts all his faith into the dr, but I tend to ask more questions and try to understand why we are doing whatever it is that they want to do. I hope this helps.
Angie
smo1 said...
AKFNomad
Back again with another question. I don't see anything about your hubby's current PSA. Do they test that and use that at all for decision making, or do they go mainly on what they see on the scans? My husband went on the Jevtana after a rise in his PSA but also he had a bone scan that showed a new bone met in his pelvic area. His doctor orders very few scans, this was the first scan in almost 5 years and that worries me since I think occasionally he should be having other scans especially when I read that PSA level isn't always a true detector. It can tend to be very discouraging because I can tell the oncologist wants to make the decisions without much explanation and my husband wants to trust that he knows exactly what needs to be done, so let the doctor decide. I get frustrated! Thanks again and I will hope and pray they find something more for your husband!
Sue