My husband has stage 4 , Gleason 9. He had 6 treatments of chemo and the shots in the stomach. Psa is now 0.1.
He has bone Mets and lilac lymph nodes.
He is finally feeling pretty good. His treatment now is an eligard injection every 3 months.
Our doc at mdandersen will get blood that we will send in a mailer every 3 months. Unless changes in psa two times in a row we do not go back to Houston. I am concerned that is not enough to just track psa. His psa was only at18 when he was diagnosed. Any feedback appreciated
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elainea53
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How far do you live from Houston ? Trying to do long distance cancer treatment can be very difficult..You might want to check in with a local MO and RO for the week to week, month to month treatment and monitoring. You may be surprised and find a nearby doctor who can effectively treat your husband..They can consult with the doctors at MD Anderson if need be...
My husband has blood tests monthly. I think every 3 months would worry me as well...but I’m up now after midnight worrying so maybe that is a “me” issue. Sorry not very helpful- just my experience. I know it is all so scary and I feel (and validate) your worry, but from a medical perspective I don’t have a research based answer.
My PSA is checked every 3 months. A recent uptick is honestly worrying me a little bit, but all I can do now is wait until January for the next check. My PSA just touched a threshold level for which we have been monitoring during the past year. However, the pattern isn't yet clear, so we wait another quarter for a more definitive indication. Maybe a monthly check would give an earlier indicator, but nothing serious is going to happen if we wait. So, we wait.
Monthly checks seem to be done more commonly if the treatment situation is dynamic. By that I mean evaluating new treatments, changed treatments, treatments that may not be working as well as hoped, in the setting of a short doubling time situation. If it's more a case of monitoring a relatively stable pattern, then quarterly may be as often as necessary.
For 6 1/2 years I went to the oncologist every 3 months, got my blood checked and a Lupron shot all at the same time. The PSA test took longer and the doctor called and gave me the results 3 days later. My oncologist worked at the local hospital. He did good and now I no longer have PCa. I wish you well.
I am on quarterly PSA and Testosterone testing after completing 18 months of ADT in May along with six cycles of taxotere and 25 IMRT when surgery and SRT failed. I did speak with my urologist about whether or not to add Chromogranin A, Serum. My urologist recommended we not.
He is fine with quarterly monitoring, switched me to ultrasensitive PSA test.
I am Stage 4, G9 dx in 2014. I live in Atlanta and see a PCA specialist every 6 months in New Orleans and a local medonc in Atlanta. Together they coordinate my treatment with the specialist being the lead doc on my case. This is the way I set up my treatment. This started when I began seeing Dr. Snuffy Myers in Virginia who was the PCa specialist, when he retired I became a patient of Dr. Sartor in NOLA who took over the role of specialist.
I get bloodwork every month despite having an undetectable PSA, this is MY choice. I want to know as soon as possible if things start to go sideways. Snuffy always wanted monthly labs and he had specific ones that he had me doing every month and additional labs every 3 months.
Most important tests are PSA, Alka Phos, Testosterone and Free Testosterone. These would show cancer activity or treatment failure. I get a bunch of other things checked too since hormonal therapy and PCA can cause other problems (anemia, etc.)
You’re the boss of the medical team, most docs won’t have a problem working with another doc, if they do you might want to find another doc.
My local onco is at Northside Forsyth and they have been great to work with. I was seeing Dr. Szabo locally for a while until he went to work for Emory which was logistically difficult so I switched medoncs. Szabo was very good and did not have a problem working with Dr. Myers. Not sure where u live but Szabo is now practicing back in Johns Creek area with Emory.
We live near spaghetti junction. We original were seeing Dr. Carthon at Emory's main campus. We were not happy with him. We went to MDA for a second opinion and decided to use that doc who only does pc.
He hasn't done any treatment, Dr Carthon did the chemo and lupron. MDA doc says stay on Eligard now every 3 months. I'' see how it goes, may ask for monthly testing.
I replied last night while I was up worried, and sure enough we got phone call this morning that my husband’s PSA is up. I am glad we know now and can see what happens next month- wouldn’t want to wait three months. I saw above that you do think you would like monthly blood tests and I think that is a very reasonable thing to ask for. Best of luck.
my PSA was also 18 at dx. I get tested tri-monthly also being part of an ADT test group. My first shot was eliguard,then Lupron knocked PSA down right away and it’s stayed there for over 3yrs.. Unless you have other signs or symptoms of Mets , I think every three months is normal. But yearly I’m put thru many scans. I’m sure your doc will ask the same. I’d think w/Mets you’d need some scans also I’m not a doctor. Others will reply.. hope that you both enjoy life together for many happy years. Scott
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