Article: Imaging scans detect prostate cancer progression, stable PSA

Posted by xahnegrey40 @xahnegrey40, 16 hours ago

Imaging scans detect prostate cancer progression despite stable PSA levels https://www.news-medical.net/news/20260701/Imaging-scans-detect-prostate-cancer-progression-despite-stable-PSA-levels.aspx

so PET Scan every yr or so since PSA readings are somewhat unreliable ?

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Prostate Cancer Support Group.

Jeff Marchi | @jeffmarc | 14 hours ago

Unfortunately, you put the link in the subject line and they only allowed so many characters so the link doesn’t work at all. You could post an update and put the link you wanted just to see in it.

Insurance is not going to approve a PET scan every couple of years unless a biopsy shows something pretty serious like Gleason Eight or higher. The standard for active surveillance is regular PSA tests and occasional, probably annual, Biopsies.

notpetecrowarmstrong | @notpetecrowarmstrong | 12 hours ago

Looks like he was trying to link to this:
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20260701/Imaging-scans-detect-prostate-cancer-progression-despite-stable-PSA-levels.aspx
It's more coverage of a study that was previously reported on this forum. It's talking about patients with advanced, previously treated PC, not about pre-Tx patients. So the question about insurance coverage may be a bit different.

Imaging scans detect prostate cancer progression despite stable PSA levels
"The ARCHES trial included patients whose prostate cancer had metastasized but still responded to hormone therapy, which lowers testosterone levels or blocks the cancer's ability to use testosterone signals to grow. Of these patients receiving enzalutamide, a subset experienced cancer progression on imaging despite stable, low, or minimally changing PSA levels.

The researchers found similar results in the PROSPER trial, which enrolled patients with non-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, meaning their prostate cancer no longer responded to hormone therapy, but their cancer had not spread to other organs based on conventional imaging.

Patients taking enzalutamide whose cancer progressed on imaging had worse overall survival than those whose cancer had not, regardless of PSA changes. The study also found that patients often felt well without new symptoms, despite the cancer advancing. Since the findings in both groups were similar, this may be a broad issue across advanced prostate cancer."