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Misleading PSA and PSMA Test Results
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: 11 hours ago | Replies (8)Comment receiving replies
PSMA is generally used for identify where the disease has metastasized. In years past I have read some studies that indicate PSMA is accurate for 90-95% of patients, so it doesn't catch everything.
From your post, it sounds like your PSA results alongside your health team led to a decision to remove the prostate, so to me that sounds like you used the insight in a proactive manner.
Hope you are recovering well from the surgery, it takes time, but things usually recover well!
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@edmond1971 Also note that:
> Up to 15% of prostate cancers may be PSMA-negative (not express any PSMA), such that a PSMA PET scan won’t even see the cancers - even though you know something is a problem due to the rising PSA.
> As it turns out, PSMA (prostate specific membrane antigen) is not really “prostate specific.” There are other organs, tissues, and fluids that naturally express PSMA (without being cancerous) and will show up as physiologic tracer uptake on a PSMA PET scan - particularly in the lacrimal (tear) and parotid (salivary) glands, blood, liver, spleen, pancreas, ganglia, and more, as well as the kidneys, ureters and the bladder (as the body tries to quickly excrete the radioligand that was injected). It takes a trained eye to know what’s cancer and what’s not.
Finally, PSMA PET scans don’t work well if the PSA is too low. So, if someone is already on ADT, PSMA PET might not see anything.