Psa question

[Peterd110]

Got my psa reading today and it had a single message below it stating that the results may be affected by exogenous biotin consumption. This message wasn’t on my reading 2 weeks ago or any other reading. And 2) would the axium pet/scan I had earlier this week affected the psa reading any??

[Tall_Allen]

Here are some other supplements that might affect PSA:

pcnrv.blogspot.com/2019/04/...

No, Axumin scan would not affect your PSA.

[Peterd110 in reply to Tall_Allen]

Thank you !

[Hidden]

There are lots of things that can affect the PSA reading. If you have done something different, wait a day or two before the test. If you are testing when things are the "same old same old", you have steady conditions and the readings will be accurate. Many of us plot a graph of the PSA, and try to explain why it went up or down - or stayed steady for that matter (lucky people!).

A low PSA means either there is not much cancer, or the immune system is trashed and not killing cancer that is there. Conversely, a higher PSA can mean lots of cancer about, or a good killing rate of a little cancer. The point is, the PSA does not tell you exactly how much cancer there is - it measures how much cancer is being killed.

If there was something that created a PSA spike (doc fingering the prostate, biopsy, radiation, Vit C IV) you can apply some maths to what is going on.The "current" PSA reading is a composite of the "base" level plus the remainder of the spike (which decays with a half life of 2.5 days). e.g. a base of 2 and a spike of 12 from 5 days ago should now be 2+3=5 (spike now a quarter of what it was). Which is the reason behind the first sentence above.

[Peterd110 in reply to Hidden]

Thanks, David. That’s very interesting

[monte1111 in reply to Hidden]

Good info. Course most of us lupron brainers just blurred on the math at the end. I remember my answer to high school math question "If a train left Boston traveling at a speed of 77 miles per hour ....... " "This is a trick question. Boston has no trains."

[GeorgesCalvez]

PSA testing is not like testing for electrolytes like sodium or potassium.

It is very hard to establish an independent standard, there is not a simple one to one ratio between the PSA and the reagent, finally it is complicated by PSA, bound PSA, etc.

It also seems that the level of PSA bounces around for its own good reasons, look at this guy's results, he has been monitoring his PSA with a low level of prostate cancer for ten years. In this time he has been doing nothing medical to the cancer except watching it and his PSA bounces around between 2.6 and 8.

csn.cancer.org/user/99828

The lesson from this is that patients get too obsessed with PSA results, doctors should know better as they have medical training and supposedly understand the limits of biochemical assays, etc but they seem to forget this at times.

In conclusion, biotin, curcuma, vigorous exercise if you believe some people, may affect your PSA level but PSA seems to vary anyway and the assay itself is not 100% reliable.

You should take a PSA test result as being qualitative with a quantitative element to it, not as a number written in stone.

[Peterd110 in reply to GeorgesCalvez]

Wow!

[pjoshea13]

Peter,

Here is what the FDA says:

"Many lab tests use biotin technology due to its ability to bond with specific proteins which can be measured to detect certain health conditions. For example, biotin is used in hormone tests and tests for markers of cardiac health like troponin. Biotin, also known as vitamin B7, is a water-soluble vitamin often found in multi-vitamins, prenatal vitamins, and dietary supplements marketed for hair, skin, and nail growth."

"The FDA is aware of people taking high levels of biotin that would interfere with lab tests. Many dietary supplements promoted for hair, skin, and nail benefits contain biotin levels up to 650 times the recommended daily intake of biotin. Physicians may also be recommending high levels of biotin for patients with certain conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS). Biotin levels higher than the recommended daily allowance may cause interference with lab tests."

"Concentrations of biotin up to 1200 ng/mL may be present in specimens collected from patients taking up to 300 mg per day."

more info: [1]

-Patrick

[1] fda.gov/medical-devices/saf...

[Peterd110 in reply to pjoshea13]

Thanks so much! Never heard of this

[Shanti1]

Biotin doesn't change the PSA level in your body, just the labs ability to measure it. In fact, biotin interferes with any Electrochemiluminescence immunoassay (ECLIA) lab test, of which PSA is one. It is thought that only high doses will do this (like those found in supplements for hair and nail support) and, since biotin has a short half life (2 hours), discontinuing it a couple days before the test will insure the accuracy of results.