Interesting PSA observation

[Nusch]

For my prostate cancer journey, please see my bio. In 06/2023 I was also diagnosed with testicle lymphoma, maybe as a side effect of earlier radiation. Testicle has been removed, PET/CT & co showed no other evidence of cancer. So I perform four cycles of R-CHOP chemo regimen. Why I post this here? After chemo-cycle-1 my PSA jumped from undetectable to 0.26 within three weeks, which scared me a lot. Now, after chemo-cycle-2 my PSA is back to undetectable. A PSA flare can be a side effect of this chemo & medications, not necessarily a sign of castration resistance.

[Carlosbach]

Glad to hear that the flare has passed, and that your PSA has dropped again. Congratulations!

[Nusch in reply to Carlosbach]

Many thx! Yes, its really good news and much needed after all what happened in the last months.

[Teacherdude72]

As far as a flare goes yours wasn't one.Every test has a range for readings and most likely that's what yours was.

0.26 is at the bottom end of acceptable for PSA for a man your age to begin with.

What did your MO say about this when you asked them? Post that answer please.

[Nusch in reply to Teacherdude72]

We met & talked, nothing in writing. He was sceptical, that this increase comes from R-CHOP chemo & medications. And the increase from less than 0.05 to 0.26 without any prostate shows a very high doubling time. On top, everything above 0.2 can indicate recurrence. So becoming castrate resistant was an option. I checked with leny.ai, which is a really good AI medical platform, and it came back with chemo & medications driven. I asked my oncologist and he said, maybe, but he wouldn’t bet on it. So my last weeks until yesterday were a bit stressful. But looking at a PSA of less than 0.05 yesterday morning was more than I could hope for and LENY was right. I also ask LENY other things and the answers are always very comprehensive. You can „talk“ to LENY in normal sentences, just in writing. It’s more patient than any doctor, has all time in the world and you can ask as many questions as you want. I don’t take it for granted, but I go back to my doctors with these answers in order to device. But up to now doctors were amazed by this tool. And nobody knew about it before I told them. That‘s good cooperation. 😉

[dhccpa in reply to Nusch]

Always good to educate our docs.

[Nusch in reply to dhccpa]

Had another PSA test yesterday, still undetectable. Lupron shot today - the show goes on.

[dhccpa in reply to Nusch]

Undetectable! How we've grown to love that word!

[Seasid]

Maybe just a testing error.

[Nusch in reply to Seasid]

I also learned that PSA tests via port-a-cath can show wrong elevated result. Especially if cath was locked for some time and not properly maintained. If you do blood test via ports always make sure that the clean with minimum 20ML, better 50ML water before and throw away the first 10ML blood before taking blood for test.