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Should PSA Super Dive Warrant Updated Imaging?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Jan 17 11:59am | Replies (16)Comment receiving replies
When you have radiation to the prostate, they essentially melt the whole thing down. Having another test to see what’s going on is sort of irrelevant. That will make no difference in what they will be doing with the radiation.
If you were having focal therapy, it would be a different story since they don’t always obliterate the whole prostate, But with radiation, it is going to be effectively gone so doing more testing Won’t be beneficial.
Replies to "When you have radiation to the prostate, they essentially melt the whole thing down. Having another..."
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@jeffmarc It’s my understanding that with radiation;
> they don’t “melt the whole thing down”
> they don’t “obliterate the whole prostate”
> the prostate is not “effectively gone”
The prostate is still intact, about 1/3 the size that it was, still producing PSA, but does have some damage.
The DNA in all the cells are damaged, but the cancer cells are unable to repair themselves, and die as they try to multiply. The healthy cells that were unable to repair themselves also die as they try to multiply. (Both being reasons why the 1/3 size.)
The healthy cells that were able to repair themselves continue to function, producing PSA (though now at “new normal” lower levels).
Unlike a prostatectomy, where the entire prostate is removed, the goal of radiation is to kill the cancerous cells, and leave behind as many healthy cells as possible.