Dear all
My father has just had a blood test for PSA which has come back at 108. This is the first step towards diagnose.
Can anybody say how far the cancer might have spread with a reading like this?
Unfortunately I was widowed by Prostate cancer In 2014 so I know more about the subject already than I ever wanted too.
My husband followed your site so that's how I knew where to find you.
Thank you
Penny
From just the PSA number alone i do not think it can be guessed at how far has spread. I have read of people with a reading of around 7 or 8 and the cancer has spread already and others with high numbers where it hasn't and has been treated successfully. You need scans and a biopsy to know more - though maybe a really experienced oncologist could tell but imagine they are very few and far between.
All the best to you and your Father and hope he gets good treatment.
Thank you for your reply, my husband was diagnosed with a PSA of 67 and his cancer was in his pelvis and high up his spine. I wondered if an even higher PSA could mean even worse. My husband was only 59 and died at 64, my father is 87.
Penny
I am Stan Patterson/protectomy; 1993/left cancer cells/psa is 19/urologist said come back in year. I am 881 they just watch me!!! ask a friendly urologist for advice,Blessings,Stan P
Stan, suggest you have a visit with a Medical Oncologist. With a PSA of 19ng/ml, and in view of your age, it appears the Urologist is just waiting for you to die rather than, if otherwise in reasonable health that PC meds would not cause any problems, prescribe meds that could rein in further PC development and hopefully bring that PSA level down.
He needs a cat scan and a bone scan and a biospy to stage the cancer. In October 2015, my PSA was 106.4, it only spread to two lymph nodes. Six months of 150 Casodex daily and one node reduced by 30%, the other node reduced by 12%; and my PSA 10.4
I will reach 18 years fighting this disease in December, 2016. Keep informed and get good medical doctors. God Bless you and your father.
Concur with biopsy, imaging, and if found outside the prostate gland, visiting with a Medical Oncologist to oversee appropriate treatment.
Hi again, We have been told that if the bone scan shows mets there will be no more tests. I don't know if that's because they consider a biopsy too risky given Dads age or the NHS not wanting the expense.
Penny
These days I see younger guys being inflicted with a more aggressive form of the disease, like your husband. And sometimes the older guys have a less-aggressive form, which, I hope, is the case with your father, in spite of his high PSA.
I lost a good friend this year who was only 46 at diagnosis, and he died at only 49, and another friend who was just a year older than myself died at 68. (I just turned 68 myself a couple of weeks ago).
Desanthony's reply above was right---some individuals have a high PSA without the cancer having metastasized and yet some with a low PSA have extensive mets; each case is different. My own PSA was 744 at diagnosis almost four years ago, but I had mets to spine, sacrum and extensive lymph gland involvement.
The extent of the cancer isn't as important as the aggressiveness. Even if it's spread, a less-aggressive form can mean that an individual will live for a long time.
Only the tests will show what is really going on with your father, and I wish you and he the very best of luck.
CERICWIN
PSA alone means nothing. Some PC cancer cells are aggressive and cause a lot of PSA to be produced. Some are not so aggressive and produce little PSA. It is the change that most doctors look at.
Thanks to all of you for taking the time to reply, hopefully things won't turn out to be as bad as I first thought.
Penny
3.7 psa to 4.4 psa
Low PSA + high Gleason-FYI
First PSA result after treatment 
PSA and PSMA
Rising PSA 
