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@jc76 Thanks. One thing that helped me dive deeper was my brother who's a 30 year PCa survivor of both surgery and extensive radiation just coincidentally happened to get his annual PSA at the same time as my 3 month psa from the same lab. Both of our orders were for just the "standard" psa (not the ultra sensitive one). My brothers psa has been undetectable for decades, and he also got a .004 just like I did. That led me to check on the machines used. When checking on the machines, it appeared that the specific calibration for a given machine will affect where the "floor" is for a given machine. Since I had my brothers .004 from the same lab within a day or 2 of mine, I surmised that .004 was "undectable" for (what I strongly suspect) was the same exact machine calibrated to that level. I don't know, but I suspect even though my lab order was for a "standard" psa, they used an ultra sensitive machine for their own convenience at the 3 month check. At my 6 month check for a "standard" psa, for whatever reason they used a less sensitive machine. I could well be wrong, but it sure fits the data I saw on the 2 lab reports. Meanwhile, at my 3 month visit with the staff Mayo urologist she said < .1 is what they're looking for. I have my 6 month visit later this morning so I'll see what she says this morning. So far, I'm pretty relaxed about it but I'll report back after my televisit in 5 hours.
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@retiredguy
Good information. I found the reading of numbers confusing coming from so many posters. I have learned that different labs, different machines, different distinct levels of testing and thus vastly different numbers are possible and used by labs.
For me I go to Mayo Jacksonville. My PCP in discussion on my last PSA test of .22 stated to me that Mayo Jacksonville lab does not give numbers below .1. Not .01.
He said below .1 that our lab considers that non detectable.
I see many posters posting much lower numbers of PSA than .1 that indicates many labs have different levels of tests and abilities when posting PSA numbers. I would have thought Mayo Jacksonville would have a more sensitive machine and testing. Maybe they do have a special machine when requested by doctors but have no information on this.
My R/O at UFHPTI said goal for me was a PSA below One (1.0) not .1
I have reached that already with my .22. But I did not have prostate removal or any hormone treatments. When I read others very low PSA numbers, I do not question them as obviously their labs are using different machines and /or sensitivity numbers than mine.
A prostate cancer patient's urologist, surgeon, R/O would have specific goal numbers depending on if they had surgery, hormone treatments, type, and duration of radiation treatments, etc.
For me decades ago my PSA was .75. It was that level for many many years and then in 2018 started rising. Both my PCP and I thought it was from extensive bike riding as I did Sprint Triathlons. So, we stopped riding the bike over and over prior to testing but kept rising.
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Re: the staff Mayo urologist she said < .1 is what they're looking for.
Somebody else in this forum said that Mayo required it to be < .01 to be considered undetectable.
Seem to have a definite conflict of information here, and the fact that you only got one decimal point is puzzling since others at Mayo get three, Including your brother. Sounds like this urologists only requests one digit because they considered it undetectable If below .1.