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Posted 7/6/2017 6:14 PM (GMT 0)
All -

I received the results of my annual PSA test today - still undetectable after 9 years.

Background: robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy in August 2008 at M. D. Anderson in Houston, Texas; age at surgery = 56 years old; last pre-surgery PSA reading was 5.7 ng/ml; post-surgery Gleason score was 4 + 3; negative margins; negative involvement of seminal vesicles; no extra capsular extension.

Current status: 99% continent (a few drops at nights sometimes); 100% erectile dysfunction, which is of academic interest only given absence of women in my life.

I wrote and published yet another book since last summer. Otherwise I live a quiet life.

I no longer recognize most people on this forum! I'll report in next summer after my next PSA test.

My best to all,

Zen9

Post Edited (Zen9) : 7/6/2017 1:42:28 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 7/6/2017 7:28 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks for sharing your update. May you have many more undetectable results.
Posted 7/6/2017 8:35 PM (GMT 0)
Great results on the cancer control.

May I ask, what type of writing?
Posted 7/6/2017 8:43 PM (GMT 0)
I'm just a couple months ahead of Zen.

This time next year we should get our ten year pin yeah
Posted 7/6/2017 9:17 PM (GMT 0)
Congrats. So, what happens after 10 years? You’ve sweated it out fora decade. Great. Is it safe to stop PSA testing 10 years after RP?
Posted 7/6/2017 9:32 PM (GMT 0)
Congrats to you and thanks for providing hope for others on this forum!
Posted 7/6/2017 11:51 PM (GMT 0)
Congratulations, Zen9. Keep up the good results.
Posted 7/7/2017 2:45 PM (GMT 0)
Awesome on your PSA free duration! I would guess effectively cured?

Sorry about the ED. Was your surgery nerve sparing? And no success with meds or other aids?
Posted 7/7/2017 4:31 PM (GMT 0)
Its never safe to stop anything on this side...accusations will flow..." same old story...no guts...no glory...a case of do or die..." "What...me worry"

I plead to The Old Fogie for repetition...even tho repetition is how we learn... idea
Posted 7/7/2017 9:05 PM (GMT 0)

Hello ZEN9,

Tremendous success story !

Your story will inspire others ... thanks for sharing your GREAT NEWS !

All my best,
Iowa State University "Cyclone"
Posted 7/8/2017 1:22 AM (GMT 0)

Gemlin said...
Congrats. So, what happens after 10 years? You’ve sweated it out fora decade. Great. Is it safe to stop PSA testing 10 years after RP?

After 10 years cancer free, you officially do not have a pre-existing condition. Not such a huge deal if ACA survives. If the special interest paid-out, boot licking, white men in suits......er...the Republican-controled congress repeals ACA, being cancer free for 10 years ensures you reasonable insurance premiums, and can't be denied coverage. Unless of course, you are over a certain age, don't have another pre-existing condition, let your insurance lapse for a certain time, are a woman, etc....
Posted 7/8/2017 9:14 PM (GMT 0)
Most (not all) men whose PSA becomes and remains undetectable after surgery do not continue to participate in this wonderful forum.

I make my annual post primarily to give men (and their loved ones) who are just starting out on their prostate cancer journeys some perspective and hope.

RealisticOptimist, the political comments you make will only serve to get this thread locked and perhaps deprive people of that perspective and hope. Please remove them. Alternatively, I ask the moderators to remove the offending comments and keep this thread open, even if just for a little while longer.

Thank you in advance.

Zen9
Posted 7/8/2017 9:47 PM (GMT 0)
Zen9 I totally agree, this is not the place for politics. Gemlin, prostate Ca can be very slow growing and should a person have only tiny metastatic or locally persistent disease it could be more than 10 years before tumor recurs. My plan, assuming PSA stays undetectable, is check PSA every three months for two years, every 4 months for another 3 or 4 years then every six months as long as I shall live, hoping to die of a sudden heart attack someday while pulling the largest buck I ever shot out of the woods.
Posted 7/9/2017 6:11 AM (GMT 0)
Great news on the PSA!

Andrew
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