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Post Prostatectomy 6 years. PSA <.01 until now. Anyone else ?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: 1 hour ago | Replies (74)Comment receiving replies
@melvinw
I reached out to Stanford University today in an effort to get a consult. A Oncology nurse called me back and I mentioned, "BTW, several men on the MAYO web site are claiming they have nodules detected via DRE post prostatectomy with no detectible PSA" She stated they do not do DRE on post prostatectomy patients and that is standard nationally for all major centers. Not done, period. No PSA, no nodule. Unless I am missing something, I do not understand how something this huge (based on some of the posts) can be overlooked. That takes care of the centers of excellence in CA as to their protocol. Not done, do not believe it is necessary.
Replies to "@melvinw I reached out to Stanford University today in an effort to get a consult. A..."
@tom86 Interesting. I kind of understand their position but that also seems pretty rigid. Regardless, I sure am glad that the urologist who did my RARP was “old school”. And btw, he was one of the founders of The Urology Center of Colorado, which at the time was a top center in the Denver metro (has since been acquired by Advent Health System). He was also one of the first urologists in the Denver metro to use the DaVinci robot and trained many surgeons on the machine. I still be with him if he hadn’t retired.
At least you got clarity on the Stanford protocols.
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@tom86 A DRE looks for swelling or abnormalities in the prostate gland; if there’s no gland to palpate, why do it?
@melvinw’s situation seems to be an outlier, but it prompted further treatment.
My first RO at Sloan did a DRE ( 5 yrs after surgery) and you would think he was searching for the Holy Grail - good God!!
When I told the second, younger RO about it he laughed and said they no longer did it - they now used PSMA PET.
I suspect Melvin’s nodule would have shown up on the PET but maybe not since some PCa types don’t produce a lot of PSA
Phil