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← Return to Onward with durable remission
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Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Jan 2 8:02pm | Replies (37)
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I don't think ultrasensitive PSA makes a difference if your PSA is already detectable; the main benefit is that "undetectable" becomes a lower (and thus, more-confident) number, by at least an order of magnitude.
Do U.S. insurers routinely cover the uPSA test, or do you have to kick up a fuss? I originally had mine done at a private lab, so I was forced to wait 2–3 days to get the result. Now I just walk to the hospital lab itself (same distance), and see the result in my online chart in 1–3 hours instead.
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My oncologist offered to let me have the more sensitive test, but said that it takes two or three days because they have to send them out. It wouldn’t cost me any more. I get almost all my other blood test results within 2 hours, But the PSA test always takes till late in the afternoon or the next morning.
In my case undetectable is a temporary thing, eventually Nubeqa will fail and I will have to move to a PARP inhibitor. Getting A more sensitive test is just not much of a benefit to me, I need to be concerned when it is .1 or higher and how quickly it is moving.
For those that may be in remission, the test is more useful. It definitely gives confidence knowing the number is so small.