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Re: psa testing is only 1 of many tools sometimes.....
purelife52,
I am sure I have said it before and certainly the piece PSA 101 on the website says it: PSA is NOT PCa specific and because of this is is NEVER accurate in showing precisely what is happening with any specific tumour
I see that you have apparently been reading Dr Strum. He is one of the few oncologists who believes in the value of the tests he has specified. Most others, from all reports, and personal experience, do not accept that they have the value he ascribes to them and very few will actually carry out the tests.
Dr Strum's statement that "....Low PSA with high Gleason scores often have reverted to an embryonic state..." is another area where his views clash with others. There are studies (small ones as I recall them) that demonstrate that, as Dr Strum says, that the tumour cells have reverted to an embryonic state and therefore generate less PSA,and this is borne out by anecdotal evidence where men with a low PSA can be diagnosed with aggressive forms of the disease.
But it would be simplistic in the extreme to say that all csses of PSA reduction, especially after therapy, are a result of the cells reverting to an embryonic state. It is far more likely that the PSA has dropped because there are less, or no, active cells.
Incidentally in saying that there are many who disagree with Dr Strum, that does not make him wrong - or them right. There is no certainty, as I have certainly mentioned before, in PCA diagnosis or treatment.
