This forum is for the discussion of anything to do with Prostate Cancer. There are only four rules:
No fundraisers, no commercials (although it is OK to recommend choices of treatment or medical people based on your personal research; invitations to participate in third-party surveys are also acceptable, provided there is no compensation to YANA);
No harvesting e-mail addresses for Spam;
No insults or flaming - be polite and respectful at all times and understand that there may be a variety of points of view, all of which may have some validity;
Opinions are OK, but please provide as much factual evidence as possible for any assertions that you are making
Failure to abide by these simple rules will result in the immediate and permanent suspension of your posting privileges.
Since this is an International Forum, please specify your location in your post.
I decided not to get the ultrasensitive PSA test after surgery. My doctor felt that the tests don't provide any extra information to help decide treatment options and that the variations cause unnecessary worry.
The standard number that most doctors will use to determine whether follow-up treatment is needed is 0.2... of course this depends on a lot of factors, including pre-surgery PSA, Gleason Score, pathology report, PSA Velocity, etc. The main thing to remember is that .03 and 0.04 are very small numbers and that the difference between them is probably within the accuracy of the tests.
Hi David
Thanks for your post i agree absolutely with you the ultra sensitive test causes so much unnecessary anxiety.Your advise i agree with with and if it gets to .1 or .2 that is the time to look at further treatment.Some of the posts also cause unnecessary worry i have have people tell me at 0.04 i have a problem I'm nearly on the detectable stage which i know is not right.Thank for post let me know how you are going i wish you the best.
Bob
