Hi Babs,
It's very difficult to assess when the pathology all looked good, and there are still small amounts of uPSA-detectable PSA. Some think it may be because benign tissue was left behind - especially true with nerve-sparing or when the surgeon attempted to leave a lot of the urethra. Or there may be microscopic bits of cancer that weren't revealed at the margin. Here's a recent article I wrote that attempts to address this situation:
Low detectable PSA after prostatectomy – watch or treat?As you can see, it appears to be safe to just watch it as long as the PSA stays below 0.03, or even if it slowly drifts higher. It's only when it exceeds 0.03
and it rises consistently or rapidly above that that men were likely to have a recurrence. All studies show that it is very safe to just watch it at the current level.
- Allen