PSA rise

I'm sorry for the stress this might have introduced into your life. In general terms, I can offer a couple of thoughts:

1. Two tests don't make a trend. While this hasn't happened to my PSA since I started cancer treatment, I've had other blood-test results suddenly jump into the concern zone, only to settle back to normal at my next tests 3 months later.

2. If you've never had any kind of prostate cancer treatment, 1.7 is a low-ish PSA reading for a healthy 72-year-old. My PSA was 67 when they detected my cancer in 2021 at age 56; some people here were in the hundreds. The main concern for you is velocity of change, and that could be just a testing quirk.

So yes, definitely pay attention and listen to your doctor, but understand that even if it is prostate cancer, it might be the slow-moving kind that develops over decades, not the aggressive kind many of us here have, that develops over months.

My uneducated guess is that if the trend continues, they'll probably just put you on "active surveillance" (more-frequent blood tests) unless your PSA suddenly spikes much higher than it is now, but again, I'm just a layperson.

Best of luck!

With the PSA of 1.7 you really are in a good spot. That’s very low and unless it hits five or six, they probably don’t even want to do a biopsy. To reassure yourself, maybe you could get retested every three months for a while, just to make sure it doesn’t keep rising. 1.7 is really close to normal for someone 72.

It is extremely unlike this means you have prostate cancer, those of us with prostate cancer had much higher PSA’s when cancer was detected.

You don’t even qualify for active waiting.

The very coarse rule of thumb I've seen a few places is that when your PSA hits 10 there's a 50% chance you have prostate cancer. That probably has so many qualifications and caveats attached that it's close to useless, except that it does give an indication of how low 1.7 is (relatively speaking).

Had an error with that “active waiting” reference.

Old days it was watchful waiting
Now called active surveillance

Got a little bit of each in my reply.

I agree with the overall sentiment of the 2 previous comments that you're in a pretty good spot. That said, I'd still suggest following through with your GP's advice and see where it leads. It'll probably just go back down, but if it doesn't I'd expect the next step is probably not a biopsy, but rather simply an MRI. That's what my urologist recommended when my PSA started rising. For me (as a healthy 70 year old) the 3T MRI with contrast was an easy test, although I guess for some folks it can be more difficult. But I do want to leave you with one caution. My brothers PSA never got to 3.0, but his PC had already gotten out of the prostate and was aggressive. My PSA never got over 4.25 and had dropped back to 3.26 on the retest right before my MRI, but I ended up having what my very experienced surgeon at a cancer center of excellence called "a heavy load of cancer" in my prostate with both Cribiform and IDC found (very not good). So while an overall low PSA is definitely a very good thing, it's no guarantee and I suspect that's partly why the rate of change is also closely monitored. I'd suggest you follow your GP's advice and follow up on this. Better safe than sorry. BTW, I'm not a medical professional nor do I have any special expertise in this area. Best wishes.

Thank you all for your help. I started the antibiotic tonight. I'll post the results in a couple weeks. Anyone who wants to add anything is certainly appreciated.

I guess the way to sum up all the comments so far is that it's too early for you to be worried, but it makes sense to be a bit more vigilant.

@woojr
Most R/Os and urologists will wait to see if your PSA continues to rise and not look a what they call bumps. Every R/O and urolgist I have seen after I had radiation therapy for prostrate cancer to expects bumps in my PSA. What they look at is the continuing rise not bumps.

You can have prostrate cancer and your PSA be normal. Mine was found when my PSA was 3.75. So PSA was normal but the continuing rise in my PSA every 3 months was not. MRI showed areas of concern. Biopsie confirmed prostrate cancer. So do not let a number steer you if your PSA continues to rise.

I was told by R/Os and urologist to not ride a bike nor have vigrous sex a week prior to having your PSA test done. I have my next 3 month PSA test coming up on 07/17/24. So far it has gone down from 3.75 to .44. So I am way below the goal of having it below 1.

Again a PSA tests showing continued rise over years should be addressed regardless of the number. It could be just prostrate irritation but could also been cancer as again my PSA number was 3.75 which is normal and I did have prostrate cancer.

Hey jc76, Good to mention your ‘normal’ PSA. I met a man in my surgeon’s reception area and we had both been operated on a month before. As these kind of conversations usually go he asked me ‘So what was your PSA?’ I replied that it was 6.1 and of course, asked what his was. His answer was ‘One’. He read the confusion on my face and began to tell me that he recently watched his best friend die an agonizing death from PCa. So terrified he became that he implored his urologist to biopsy him but the DR refused on the basis of his 1.0 PSA. He tried other uros and they all refused.
So he flew up to NYC to see my surgeon who also agreed with the other DRs and warned him that there could be side effects, etc. The guy dug in his heels and said he would sign whatever paper he had to, just do the GD biopsy! The surgeon agreed.
Lo and behold the guy had a Gleason 5+5 in most areas with no symptoms and LOW PSA. Turns out that some of the most aggressive PCa’s do mot express a lot of PSA and who knows why?
Of course, this is one of those things that you only hear now and then but it certainly bears reflection.

Thank you very much. I've learned a lot from everyone's comments.