Up And Down Psa

I am 48, and was 46 when diagnosed. I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1/03, and did hdr with 25 ebrt treatments in 5/03. I'm 18 months past now and psa has been like a roller coaster. 1st psa (6 month follow up)psa had dropped from 6.7 pre treatment down to only 2.4, and at 12 months it had elevated back to 4.4. Doc put me on Cipro and and checked again 1 month later, it dropped to 3.8 and then 2 months later it climbed to 6.4, so this time 30 days of cipro. psa in nove back down to 3.7.
Doc thinks it is a combination of psa bounce and prostate infection. When diagnosed only 1 out of 12 biopsies had cancer. Gleason 3+3=6, mri of prostate showed it was confined to prostate. my docs success rate with hdr is flawless. he has doen 100's of them. He said its hard to compare my psa to others because I'm a young man with an old mans disease. I did not take hormones as most men do before the hdr.
Will get results of latest psa next Mon.
Curious if any other men my age has had similar problems.

Why, if you have 1 test that has cancer, are you playing around with this cancer? My husband was 50 when his first PSA was 18 and they did an immediate radical prostatectomy and it had already gone to one lymth node. Now 3 yrs later the PSA has begun to climb again from 2.5 to 5.3 in 3 months! Now he faces an orchiectomy and chemo. Don't mess around with this cancer, get that prostate out of there now before the cancer gets out the goes somewhere else!

I'm in a similar situation. Was diagnosed at 45. Treated at 46. Gleason 7, PSA 9.4. Recently, my PSA started rising 24 months after I125 seed implants and 7 weeks of CBRT. PSA went down to 1.6. PSA is now 6.1. Both the urologist and radiation oncologist say to wait and see what the PSA does. We're hoping for it to level out. This would indicate a bounce. I'm on a PSA test schedule of every three months. I must admit it is a bit unsettling. However, 35 or so percent of radiation patients experience a bounce. So, it's not uncommon. Both did not recommend hormone therapy at this point. Unfortunately, it seems like a waiting game. I did extensive research regarding the radiation therapy and I'm trying to keep an objective, positive attitude. I'm always interested in talking to patients/survivors, especially younger ones since there are not many of us.

I had a combination of seeds and external beam to treat a t1c, gleason 3+3, psa of 4.5 in oct. of 1996 when I was 51 years old. For the first year my psa stayed right around 4.5. for about a year. My doctor said the good news was that it was not going up. Then it started going up during the next year. The good news this time was that it was going up slowly and only got to 6.7. Then it started going up very fast. It got up to 12.9 withing the next six months. I was very concerned and went around the country talking with doctors in soem of the best hospitals. No one said anything to be a bout PSA bounce. We did a biopsy and found cancer cells but they looked very damaged. I had a number of tests, like MRI, PET scan etc. Could not find anything. Some doctors wanted me to have salvage surgery, others said there was nothing to be done, it had escaped. I decided I would do nothing until the PSA got to 20. Well sooon after (we are now in Jan. of 1999) the PSA droped to 8.5 and then over the next two years it slowly come down and then kind of stabilized at around 2. But then it came down some more and now it is 0.8.

PSA bounce is not a lot of fun to say the least.

I had prostate cancer diagnosesed nearly five years ago and have been undergoing intelligent,watchful waiting. During this time my PSA has been as high as 11.2 and as low as 3.3. It, in fact, changed from 8 to 3.3 in less than a week's time. I have had no infecton. So, I guess some of us just have unexplained PSA bounce. I know your case is of more concern because supposedly your HDR should have taken care of the prostate cancer within the gland itself and if PSA is high is from metastasized cells. Sorry for your frustration.
Roy D.

I'm 67 and was diagnosed in late 03 with T1C prostate cancer, Gleason 3+3=6, and PSA 8.7
About 6 mo after permanent seed implants, my PSA dropped to 2.2. By 12 mos. PSA was 4.2, and by around 18 mos. it was 6.5. Just recently it has been down a little. Doctors say that while I am "atypical", they think the increased PSA scores are caused by the dying cancer cells and that the radiation did its job. They are not recommending any additional treatment at this time. Other web sites talk about "horror stories" where patients had additional treatment when it wasn't needed. For me, I am going to follow Doctors' recommendation.

Prostate Cancer treated with Proton Beam/Loma Linda, finished 12/06, had hormones too as gleason was 9....Hormones wore off May 07, PSA has gone from 2 in 10/07 to 3 11/06 to 6.7 today, 2/08.....bounce? Can't go back for seconds at Loma Linda so will have bone scan done next week and have appointment with LA specialists 2/26.....any thoughts? thx .... I'm 65 .... Bruce