My husband has been having increasing PSA levels for the past few yrs. He's already had 2 biopsies - both negative. He just went in and his PSA is now up to 14, from 9 one year ago. His doctor wants him to have another biopsy.

Should we be alarmed going from 9 to 14 in one year ????

My husband has been having increasing PSA levels for the past few yrs. He's already had 2 biopsies - both negative. He just went in and his PSA is now up to 14, from 9 one year ago. His doctor wants him to have another biopsy.

Should we be alarmed going from 9 to 14 in one year ????

rrhoda,

Yes, you should. It is definitely worth the concern and investigation. The velocity of change is significant.

My husband had a similar route, two negative biopsies, and a PSA increase. Had a saturation biopsy, and cancer was found. I believe he had false negative results prior to the final biopsy. That is not uncommon. Had Open RP July 23rd. It was quite aggressive and he had just turned 50.

Results were very good from the surgery! Keep the faith but definitely be aggressive in checking things out!

Debbie

My husband has been having increasing PSA levels for the past few yrs. He's already had 2 biopsies - both negative. He just went in and his PSA is now up to 14, from 9 one year ago. His doctor wants him to have another biopsy.

Should we be alarmed going from 9 to 14 in one year ????


I know of a guy in his late 40's with a similar situation. His PSA spikes at times. Several biopsies with nothing positive. His PSA readings have always returned to the normal range. He's chosen to watch-n-wait. Not smart!

My PSA jumped almost 2 points in less than 18 months, from 2.6 to 4.3, which gave my family doctor serious concern. He immediately referred to a urologist. That started my journey toward da Vinci surgery six months later.

Short answer: Yes, I'd be alarmed at those numbers!

:angel:

rrhoda-
Yes I'd be worried too. Those numbers are high. Might be BPH but continue to get those biopsies to be sure. Maybe you should ask for a Free PSA. It's another way to check on the likely hood of cancer.
My husband's PSA jumped from 3.2 to 9.6 in just over a year. Thank God the dr was vigilent on testing his PSA yearly. He had robotic surgery last July and we are still struggling with incontinence and ED. He lost both his nerve bundles but his margins are clear. Did have extra capsular extension. Coming up this week on his 3 month PSA and check up. Keep your fingers crossed.
His brother also has had 3 biopsy's and all have been negative with numbers high like yours. He feels its just a matter of time before they find PCa too.
You are doing the right thing by continueing to get it checked. Good luck to you.
Martha

rrhoda,

Everyone's situation is different, but I would definitely be concerned with a one year increase from 9 to 14. At a minimum, he should be getting a confirming PSA with Free PSA. When was the last biopsy? Maybe it's time for another one. The DRE was normal?

My PSA went from 4.1 to 10.1 in nine years, during which I had two negative biopsies. Never had a five point jump in one year. I had a robotic RP on July 30 with good results.

My husband has been having increasing PSA levels for the past few yrs. He's already had 2 biopsies - both negative. He just went in and his PSA is now up to 14, from 9 one year ago. His doctor wants him to have another biopsy.

Should we be alarmed going from 9 to 14 in one year ????

Rrhoda,

I am a just joined newbie and saw your post today. It may be too late for you to read this, but there are some other techniques to help assess or determine whether there is cancer other in addition to the free PSA mentioned earlier.

One is the PCA3 Plus test, which can give a lot of confidence one way or the other when used as a complement to the PSA test. It's a urine test that follows an "attentive" (read vigorous) DRE. You can check it out on the web. At least two labs apparently offer it, and the DRE/urine part can be done anywhere and the sample mailed to a lab. One of its main roles is foreseen as helping men who have suspicious PSAs but have had at least one negative biopsy.

A color Doppler ultrasound guided biopsy done by an expert can also be a lot more effective than a conventional biopsy, even one with 12 cores or so. Growth of new blood vessels, which are needed to support new tumor growth, shows up red in real-time imagery used by the surgeon instead of regular ultrasound. A lot of detail is available regarding the existence (or not), extent and location of cancer.

A saturation biopsy with perhaps 40 to over 100 cores is the best, from what I've read. It's done under general anesthesia, and apparently patients tolerate pretty well, much better than you would think based just on that high number of cores.

Good luck to you both,

Jim

Rrhoda,

I am a just joined newbie and saw your post today. It may be too late for you to read this, but there are some other techniques to help assess or determine whether there is cancer other in addition to the free PSA mentioned earlier.

One is the PCA3 Plus test, which can give a lot of confidence one way or the other when used as a complement to the PSA test. It's a urine test that follows an "attentive" (read vigorous) DRE. You can check it out on the web. At least two labs apparently offer it, and the DRE/urine part can be done anywhere and the sample mailed to a lab. One of its main roles is foreseen as helping men who have suspicious PSAs but have had at least one negative biopsy.

A color Doppler ultrasound guided biopsy done by an expert can also be a lot more effective than a conventional biopsy, even one with 12 cores or so. Growth of new blood vessels, which are needed to support new tumor growth, shows up red in real-time imagery used by the surgeon instead of regular ultrasound. A lot of detail is available regarding the existence (or not), extent and location of cancer.

A saturation biopsy with perhaps 40 to over 100 cores is the best, from what I've read. It's done under general anesthesia, and apparently patients tolerate pretty well, much better than you would think based just on that high number of cores.

Good luck to you both,

Jim


With all due respect, I had 12 cores taken under general anesthesia at an outpatient surgical center. When I asked my uro why the special treatment for a simple biopsy procedure, he told me that his malpractice insurer forbids any surgery in his office. All outpatient surgery, regardless of the extent of the procedure, must be done in an outpatient surgical center in case of complications. They have enough trained staff to handle any emergency. My uro told me that it's been known for guys to go into cardiac arrest just from the stress of anticipating a simple biopsy procedure. Imagine that! I'll bet that lowered his malpractice insurance rates while the increased costs of using a surgical center are shifted over to my insurance! Nevertheless, with regard to my biopsy experience, it may just be me and my unique reaction but I had plenty of soreness for about a week after the biopsy procedure. My opinion, if they had to take 40 to 100 cores, I'd opt for them to just go ahead and do the prostatectomy. Let's face it, at 100 cores, how much of my prostate gland would be left? That's like taking 100 bites out of a walnut!

Best wishes!

:angel:

My husband had a saturation biopsy under normal conditions like a regular biopsy with 22 cores taken. With 2 prior biopsies negative, the doctor didn't want to fool around, the PSA was creeping up. Well, it did the trick. Found the cancer, and all is history. Thankfully they went this route and all is well and good!

He said he had no more pain or healing issues, in fact he thought it was easier than his previous biopsies.

From our experience with a saturation biopsy..... it is thorough, no need to wonder if they had a false result. It is close to 100% accurate.