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Jean; - You didn't say how long ago he had radiation. Radiation is not going to drop the PSA right away like surgery would but takes time as cancer cells die off and fail to reproduce. Also radiation does not destroy healthy prostate cells so he will get a PSA from healthy prostate cells that remain after radiation. Don't panic but yes, be aware that cancer is not curable but manageable is a better description. Hope that helps. Jon.
Prostatectomy 01-05-16; afterwards, psa 2.8.
Four weeks after that, 3.7.
A few weeks later, 5.1
He is now in week 3 of 7 weeks of radiation; has had one hormone shot.
PSA is now down to 2.1
Jean,
Your friend's husband should try to get any and all treatments available. You don't have to tell your friend this again (since the oncologist already has) but the rapidly rising PSA after a prostatectomy is a very bad sign and seldom seen. The hormone treatment will drive the PSA down but probably not for very long in his case.
He should try and get a DNA test in case he has a genetic issue causing the cancer, which is a 20% chance in these aggressive cancer cases. There might be a few drugs to try and attack the cancer that way.
There are also many new drugs available to treat the cancer after the initial hormone treatment fails. Staying as healthy as one can is the way to stay alive so your body can take the next drug when the last one fails.
WOW, that's discouraging, but I was afraid of that. In my own experience the oncologists are very negative, sometimes needlessly so. Seems here like the onc is right on. I'll encourage them to get him healthy; he is fairly overweight, but working on that. Thanks for the info.
Jean; - Yes, I agree with Frank that the numbers are not good. Didn't understand here that he had a surgery first. One always hopes that sort of PSA spike is from some other source - and anything is possible but the odds don't sound good. His Gleason score would be helpful in determining the seriousness also. Seems like anything over 7 is quite serious, not meaning to understate the seriousness of 7 and below but 8's and 9's are not good. Jon.
It's too bad his doc didn't inform him of the new molecular scans like C-11 choline, c-11 acetate, or PSMA. This scan would detect prostate cancer anywhere in his body. The radiation oncologist could then radiate any lesion that that was detected with this scan. He still may be able to do this, so he might want to look into this option.
Jean, I just want to add that all the advice given above is spot on and to add the thought that I think I'm the only man on this site who started out with Gleason 9 and a PSA of 62.3 and I'm still going strong after nine years, fully expecting to double that. So there is always hope. That coupled with a positive attitude and keeping fit should enable you friend's husband to follow my example. I hope so.
