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After 2 years of 0.0 PSA readings following my surgery I just got my latest test results and they're 0.1 (not ultra-sensitive). Obviously I'm concerned and will be seeing my Dr on Monday.
A question - do these tests ever give false positives?
A question - do these tests ever give false positives?
Technically the answer is that a PSA test cannot give a false positive or a false negative for prostate cancer because it is not prostate cancer specific. The test merely indicates that a certain level of a protein labelled (incorrectly) as prostate [GLAND] specific has been detected. If you haven't read PSA 101 you might find it useful to do so now.
You indicate that you have not been using an ultra-sensitive PSA test, so your readings until now would not strictly speaking have been 0.0 but would more correctly would have been 'no PSA detected above the range of this test'. The latest test says that they have detected a very small quantity of PSA - probably at the lowest reportable level.
Given the inherent inaccuracy of the PSA test - the range of any report is within 15 - 25% of the median quotedt as the PSA level - and the fact that it is not PSA specific, it seems unlikely that you should be too worried at this stage. The danger signs are continous and ever more rapidly rising PSA levels - no judgement can be made on a single number.
As Terry advises, stay cool! One reading does not mean it's coming back. I have been going through psa anxiety myself over the last year. I have the ultra sensitive tests and have discussed them on this previous thread:
http://pub2.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=154144579&frmid=42&msgid=831296&cmd=show
I had surgery two years ago also, and about a year ago my numbers, albeit minutely, started rising and falling and rising again. Currently they are back to undetectable- go figure. My doc told me he usually likes to see three consecutive rises, before he considers salvage therapy, and then has a threshold of .3 before he'll pull the trigger. In a recent article in PCRI Insights, there has been several recent studies which show excellent long remissions from salvage therapy after RP provided the treatment is started at low psa levels. The article is here:
http://www.prostate-cancer.org/pcricms/sites/default/files/PDFs/Is13-2_p8-17.pdf
My doc advocates the ultra sensitive test because it can show a more accurate measure of velocity if the psa starts to rise. There again, he says its like weighing feathers!
