Rising PSA's after treatment - an answer

First let me reintroduce myself. I'm one of the grade 10's. An aggressive 10 at that so I have to be on top of things – the alternatives aren't attractive. I've had Proton Beam Therapy with Lupron. Lupron prior to Proton Beam to lower tumor activity and continuing post to prevent reoccurance – just in case.

Now then – I've seen a lot of queries regarding PSA values after treatments, whatever the treatment is. The questions have been – what's a good value, or what's a bad value, or what do any changes mean?

Here's the bottom line. No two of us are alike. Thank God for that!! So no two tumors are alike either. This whole cancer treatment protocol is pretty much individual with some common threads. So the answer to PSA values as I understand the big picture is not one of specific values. Your PSA of 0.9 may be of some value to you but meaningless to me. What IS of value is a trend line. Spot numbers are of little to no value. What your physician is looking for is a trend line. PSA values over time are the numbers of consideration. Bye and large this is a slow growing tumor – which is why I'm still here and able to report in every now and then. Again, the answer is a TREND LINE. You will be alarmed when your PSA's are continuously rising. Else enjoy a scotch with me. Happy day.