Three-months Post Prostatectomy, PSA is Dropping - What's Next?
I’m 60 years old. I had a radical prostatectomy 3 months ago. PSA at the start was 6.8. Six weeks after surgery, 5.5. A month after that, 3.3.
I can’t find much info on what’s next for me. The oncologist wants to wait for a few months to see if my PSA goes up. Not sure where to go from here?
I'm not a doctor, but it would seem that if cancer was confined to the prostate and the prostate was removed, the PSA should be undetectable at 3 months and beyond. I had surgery nearly 7 months ago and both at 3 and 6 months my PSA was < 0.01. Did you see your pathology report? What does your urologist say?
Unfortunately they don't know until a few months after surgery whether or not the cancer was completely contained. It is a pretty regular occurrence that men see their PSA levels going up months after surgery as microscopic cancer cells lying on the floor of the prostate become active leading to salvage radiotherapy to mop up those cells.
The Dr. wasn’t sure it was contained. Update My psa went from 3.3 to 4.9 now it’s 9.6. I start hormone therapy next week. I would have started this week but the Oncologist is fighting the insurance for what medication he can use. Oh. I’ve been fighting to get a axiom scan. But the insurance ($8,000)wouldn’t pay. But they did approve a bone and ct scan total cost $20,000? Of hormone therapy stopped the cancer I’ll start radiation
Thanks Tony. Going to do hormone therapy. For six months. Make sure my psa goes down. Then radiation therapy
.. if you want to check it out I did a video diary of my experience with Lupron and Radiation treatments.
Can be found at www.theprostatecncercoach.com
Again .. good luck
I also had surgery and the urologist and the pathologist confirmed my Gleason 9 was contained.
Well 2 years later I had a rising PSA - At the 5 year mark I had the 6 month Lupron shot and then 40 treatments of radiation - so far so good. You just never know how your body reacts or if a few stray micro cells were missed.
So far I am 8 years from my original surgery and doing well. The worst for me was the hormone therapy. That said I know guys in our support group who had no reaction to it.
Good luck and if at all possible try relax and focus on the positives in your life.
... Dennis (prostate cancer.net Team)
