Cancer free ?

By CommunityMember79

1 min read

Prostate cancer diagnosis

Diagnosed in March of 2005. A da Vinci robotic surgery removed my prostate That month. My Gleason score was 4. A year later, I received 28 IMRT radiation treatments. Save the usual after effects, my life has been normal since. Recently my PSA numbers have shown a slight upward tic, so, keeping watch on that.

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Richard Faust Community Admin
Hi <inline-mention username="CommunityMember79" user-id="4659699"/>. Glad to hear you have kept on top of things and it sounds like a rising PSA has been caught early. Has your doctor mentioned the PSMA scan? As discussed in this article, it can locate recurrent prostate cancer at lower PSA levels, and thus earlier, than ever previously possible: <a href='https://prostatecancer.net/clinical/psma-imaging-scan' target='_blank'>https://prostatecancer.net/clinical/psma-imaging-scan</a>. Your doctor should be able to provide you with additional information. Wishing you the best and please feel free to keep us posted on how you are doing. Richard (ProstateCancer.net Team)
1. Sue Franke Moderator & Contributor
 <inline-mention username="Richard Faust" user-id="3268931"/> I don't want to be negative about any possible tests or treatments but wanted to share that my husband had a PSMA a couple months ago and no determinations were made as to where his cancer is now. His psa has been on a very slow creep upward so as an encouragement to CommunityMember 79, the upward tic can creep slowly for a long time before any treatment needs to begin. It's good to keep a watch on it, as we do, but hopefully the numbers will continue at a slow crawl.
Richard Faust Community Admin
Hi <inline-mention username="CommunityMember79" user-id="4659699"/>. I just wanted to follow up on what <inline-mention username="Sue Franke" user-id="4506969"/> said. If a PSMA is unable to pick up recurrent cancer it absolutely can be prudent to wait for any treatment. In fact, not long ago I shared this video with another community member in a similar situation where two experts discuss what a game changer the PSMA is: <a href='https://www.urologytimes.com/view/evaluating-the-sensitivity-of-psma-pet-scans' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer ugc'>https://www.urologytimes.com/view/evaluating-the-sensitivity-of-psma-pet-scans</a>. In particular, they discuss lutetium 177, a targeted radiological agent attached to the PSMA, which will attack PCa that the PSMA locates (see the 6:40 mark in the video). This enables a level of targeting never before possible at much earlier stages. Based on what these experts say, anyone with PSA below 0.2 may want to question, just like Sue mentioned, why they should start any broad based treatment before the PSMA can locate the exact location of the spread. Even then, a discussion with one's doctor about the specifics of the individual case and what is witnessed on the growth rate may dictate how soon to start any treatment. Best, Richard (ProstateCancer.net Team)