Rising psa after radical prostatectomy
At 45 I had a psa of 4.9. I proceeded to have a radical prostatectomy.
A few years later my psa started to rise again. Over the last 15 years it has risen from a .1 to a .4 and due to my slight incontinence issues I have been reluctant to do radiation since that could make it worse.
I have for the most part been monitoring it. My previous psa went from a .4 to a .45 over 18 months. But my last one jumped from a .45 to a .6
In 6 months.That’s the biggest jump I’ve had. My doctor is saying it’s time to do radiation. Has anyone had the radiation years after prostatectomy and how have the side effects been. Incontinence,bladder,colon erections,etc.
Hi
. I can't personally speak to salvage radiation, but I know several of our contributors have been through it successfully and have had undetectable PSA tests since. I want to share with you this page from our Forums section specifically on experiences with salvage radiation: https://prostatecancer.net/forums/salvage-radiation. Hopefully others will chime in with their experiences. Wishing you the best. Richard (ProstateCancer.net Team) I had my Robotic assisted prostatectomy in April of 2020. Got a call a week after surgery that there was still cancer present but they didn't want to take another PSA test for at least 12 weeks for fear of a false positive or negative, I can't remember. I just thought it was too long to wait. By the time they did the test it was 52, then 67 a week later, then 165 two weeks later. And the caner had spread to the bones. Next thing was hormone therapy, brought the PSA all the way down to .20 in 6 months, but the past 6 months have been climbing steadily, not at 6.8.
I'm pretty sure radiation is the next step but they haven' confirmed it yet. Best of luck, it's always something.
Wishing you the best,
. Keep us posted on what comes next and let us know if you have any questions. -Samuel, Team Member
My last comment should have said "now at 6.8" instead of "not at 6.8"
Robert63 I'm on my third bio-chemical relapse now. PSA rising since 2018 going from <.008 to .262 currently. Radiation was never an option for me as initial PSA was 85 and 99 and cancer was out at diagnosis. Am having a PSMA done soon to wee if we can identify shere its hiding and see if radiation or more surgery might actually be called for 13 years later. Wish you luck, DanF, moderaotr, prostatecancer.net.
Thanks for the feedback, I'd love to know how your PSMA scan turns out. I thought my doctor once told me I couldn't have that scan because my prostate cancer has already spread to my bones, but I'm not sure I'm remembering that correctly. My issue right now is that the latest imaging from Jan 12th showed "stable" condition where I have cancer, no new locations, yet my PSA is rising hard. I think the PSMA-Pet scan might shed more light on that if I could have one.
