Ultra sensitive PSA

[podsart]

Does anyone have a dr (besides Dr Myers), who uses monthly PSA tests and. Specifically ultra sensitive PSA tests?

[arizonablue]

Tell your doc that you want the ultra sensitive psa test, there really shouldn't be an issue with getting that done.

[Break60]

Dr Dattoli has me tested monthly using ultra sensitive test.

[cfrees1]

I get tested every 3 months at this point with the ultra sensitive test. Why are you asking?

[podsart in reply to cfrees1]

Hi - currently with dr Myers who tests me monthly which has been successful in my case, allowed him to move quickly when was problem

Thanks for all for your replies

[Break60]

If you need a monthly test your PCa doc will know it and write a script for it. It's been my experience that you need it to see if a new non invasive therapy is working so you can switch if necessary to something else or if you're PSA is rising (biochemical recurrence) after a previous therapy has failed and you're waiting for PSA to get high enough for a scan to be effective in finding the location of the PCa. Not a doctor just another survivor!

Bob

[herb1]

I think Bob's comment is the key one: if you're doing new therapy and it's important to respond quickly, then OK. Going to the other extreme: I get rather annoyed at urologists..and even my oncologist, who want to do the psa test on the day of my visit--then we wait another month or 3 to respond--lousy medicine. I get mine a few days before office visit so we have "hot" data when I visit. Yes, it does require an extra visit somewhere (I go to Labcorp).

herb

[podsart]

Thanks all

[Hidden]

My lab just happened to use uS testing, but it's more confusing than actually useful. No one's going to act on uS data, and it highly volatile random variations serve little purpose beside warnings that often turn out to be false. My PSA zoomed and crashed meaninglessly many times between allllmost 0.100 and "<0.006". Had I been a worrier, this would have drive me nuts. Did it give me a heads-up before my PSA hit and stayed > 0.1? Yes, but that was after several such false alarms, and even then I got a couple of "<0.006"es. What was imprtant was my doubling time; it was over 2 years, giving me another hundred years to worry about it. Good thing I don't worry about this $#!+.

[Hidden]

I have had 90+ in the past 13 years. During my six month Chemo Trial, every week. For the next year, every month. Then every 3 months, and now that I have "graduated", every 4 months. Until the day that I die, it will never be less than every 4 months as I am still being followed from the trial. My Medical Oncologist who is a researcher in academia always used standard PSA assays. Why, I asked? Too much fluctuation and most people get upset and nervous when the numbers move from <0.02 to < 0.07 when they are both <0.1, which is considered undetectable. Ever think about where PSA comes from and what glands produce it?

So, over the years my PSA has either been 0.0 or <0.1. And, what do you really want to know in the whole scheme of things? That you PSA is <0.1

or undetectable with no worries in between.....

Keep kicking the bastard,

Gourd Dancer

[podsart in reply to Hidden]

Thanks

One reason , might be the concept of keeping Pca to as low volume as possible to keep probability of a mutation to a negative PSA form or the deadly small cell format. Less PSA cells means less throws of the dice that can come up with such bad mutations - of course, Gleason level is a factor

May I ask was your chemo trial with taxotere?

Glad things going well for you