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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.
