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Barry, When I was 56, I had my first PSA in over 5 years and it went from .8 to 3.0.
Got my attention. I was also noticing some of the same symptoms you are having so it made me wonder if some prostatitus had produced the higher PSA result.
I did not see a doctor at the time so I was not given antibiotics in case I had bacterial prostatitis.
Over the next 6 months I changed my diet, took some ibuprofen and for the 20 days (on a vacation) prior to my next test I stayed off my bike which normally I was riding about 100 miles per week.
My next test was 1.6, and quite a relief.
Since then I have read much about the impact of prostatitis. Interestingly not only are there non-bacterial and bacterial prostatitis but also asymptomatic prostatitis. So even very mild to absent "symptoms" can cause a significant jump in one's psa.
I wonder, after your Nov. 07, 3.8 did did you get any antibiotics or any other treatment to see if the rise was only due to prostititis or did they just do a biopsy without a second confirming PSA test?
You have only 12 days til your test. Not that much time. Would be nice to be treated for any potential prostititus to see if that 5.6 might drop back to 3.8 or even to 1.9
Something back under 2.5 would really make you wonder.
Also tests can vary greatly from week to week, even from day to day.
Perhaps there will be others with good ideas. I'm thinking at the very least, you might be able to counteract any inflammation to a certain degree by just taking ibuprofen over the days leading up to the test. I don't believe waiting until the last few days will do the job.
I noticed prior to my lower tests, that I no longer had my mild symptoms and if connected, it ended up in a lower score.
You should read the psa page on prostate-help.org
Lots of tips and ideas.
I did not get any anti-biotics after the Nov 07 PSA test, but I am taking Cipro now since the 5.6 PSA in April. At the Urologist's office then they did find white blood cells in my urine, a sign of infection, but that was not verified when the lab looked at the sample. They said the sample was clear of white blood cells. Supposedly this tells me there is no infection there. Surprisingly though the prostate dragon really raised it's head since taking the Cipro. Hard to figure this all out.
Well, regardless of whether you have a bacterial infection, inflammation can produce a high PSA.
Much of prostatitis is not bacterial. Now, I'm not a doc but I don't see any problem with attempting to quell any possible "itis" between now and your next test.
I don't know of any problem with doing ibuprofen between now and then, giving it a chance to calm down.
As I said, I never went to the doc and as such never took any antibiotics but my "itis", to the extent it was there, seemed to calm down. Now was that related to my lower PSA score? I think so, but can't prove it. Also the absence of my 100 mi./wk biking.
I also began to take and eat other anti-inflammatory foods and spices (curcumin), but this close to your test, I'm not sure those items would do that much while ibuprofen may.
Go check out that site I told you about. Look at all the things that can affect your PSA greatly.
Wish you the best in staying in the watchful-waiting mode.
There’s not a lot I can add to Daniel’s posts, which are excellent, except to re-iterate that infection of some type is a much more likely cause of your PSA rise than PCa.
Daniel mentions the way in which the PSA test results can change in a pretty arbitrary fashion and you may be interested to see the results of a little experiment I ran five or six years ago when I had daily tests to see what, if any variance there might be. You can see the tabled results and chart at Personal Results It might also be useful to read a discussion on these results at PSA Variation
Good luck in your journey – just remember there is no certainty in any aspect of prostate cancer and the golden rule is that there are no rules.
Thanks Terry, it was interesting to read your own history on the website, quite supportive of my own decision to follow active surveillance. However I am not very interested in any more biopsies. Do you know what the alternatives are to biopsies? I have heard about MRI-S or MRI-3t, but as far as I can figure out you would not be able to get a PSA reading from that.
How's sunny Melbourne these days? I am from Auckland, used to live in Sydney, now in Arizona.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Rising PSA and Prostatitis
G’day Barry,
That’s a long way you’ve gone to escape the Land Of The Long White Cloud (and Sydney!!). I assume it was after a World Cup that you made your decision to flee – but the question is always – which one??
There simply isn’t any definitive test that diagnoses prostate cancer apart from a positive biopsy read by an expert. It follows therefore that the only way you can get any definite information about what, if any progress is being made by the tumour is to have serial biopsies.
The best idea I have come across is the one being practiced by a man with a very scientific approach who has an annual color Doppler scan done by Duke Bahn in Ventura, California, which isn’t all that far from you. Although these scans are not definitive, the claim, supported by some reasonable evidence, is that they can highlight any suspicious areas of activity that might need further investigation and so, even if another biopsy might be appropriate (it hasn’t been in this man’s case) at least it would be guided accurately to an area most needing investigation, rather than the normal pot shot approach.
One of our members, Dave Martinez underwent this procedure recently and it might be worth your while reading his story and perhaps contacting him.
Good luck with your Active Surveillance – and to the All Blacks if they ever meet make another final!
No, I left long ago, when the hormones were still pumping and NZ wasn't big enough for me. I think the All Blacks then were doing pretty well and the America's Cup was just a glint in Peter Blake's eye. I actually went to the same schools as he did, but he was a few years older - I knew his younger brother better.
Now of course the hormones have calmed down and I wouldn't mind being back there again for the peaceful life.
I really didn't like the biopsy and have had a definite problem down there since it was taken. I guess at some point I will have to do it again. Possibly thr MRI-S is better than the Doppler scan, but I will have to look into that.
As an intermediate step you may want to look into this (Not a commercial...I just ran into it 3 days ago and sent it out to my PBRT group):
New Gene Methylation Test for Prostate Cancer Available
Friday May 16, 7:15 am ET
RARITAN, N.J., May 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Veridex, LLC announced today that its licensing collaborator, Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp), has commercially launched a new gene methylation test for prostate cancer. The new assay uses the biological specificity of 'DNA methylation' in prostate cancer, detecting the methylation of the gene GST-Pi. Methylation is a modification of DNA that occurs primarily in cancer. Veridex is developing the methylation markers in this tissue assay, GST-Pi, along with other markers, for a urine-based screening test for prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men in the U.S., with more than 230,000 cases diagnosed annually.
LabCorp licensed the methylation technology from Veridex in 2007. Veridex licensed this technology from OncoMethylome Sciences, S.A. (OMS).
Me again...If the above test would be positive, I would guess you would still need a biopsy to stage and grade your disease. When I was told I needed a 2nd biopsy (1st was negative), I changed doctors because the first test went so badly. The 2nd biopsy with a new doc wasn't fun, but wasn't nearly as bad as the 1st.
I have read about another urine test that can be done by a Doctor in the Philippines. It only costs $65 I think, but again these don't give you the PSA or fPSA. I forget what they are mearsuring in the urine too. Supposedly it's a better test of how much cancer you have, because a rise in PSA can be caused by some other things. I think I read it on www.cancertutor.com.
