No surprise here. In my spreadsheet, I put a placeholder value of 0.50 ng/mL for this PSA test based on the previous trend, and the actual result came in slightly higher at 0.52 ng/mL.
Courtesy of Daniel Zeller
The PSA Doubling Time is dropping as well. Using the last five readings and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering PSA Doubling Time calculator, my PSADT was:
- 6.7 months on 6 December 2023
- 6.2 months on 19 January 2024
- 5.1 months on 1 May 2024
It seems safe to say that the salvage radiation therapy failed to do the trick.
I am trying to describe my reaction to this hour-old news. I guess words that I might use would be: numb, indifferent, resigned. I don’t know. It’s a bit weird. I certainly had zero expectation that my PSA would go down or even hold steady given the previous trend.
You may recall the conversation with the medical oncologist suggested that we monitor and do another PSMA PET scan in six months, which would make it August. The question now is, based on these results, do we stick with that plan? Or do we move to the discussion on the type of androgen deprivation therapy and the timing of ADT?
I did ask the phlebotomist if he was drawing blood for a testosterone baseline test and he said yes. I don’t see the results posted online yet (my record is still going through its once-a-day update as I type this).
Well, it’s after midnight. I’ll sleep on this and perhaps I’ll be a tad more focused in the morning after having processed this.
What’s next:
- 9 May – Appointment with primary care physician (annual physical)
- 14 May – Appointment with urologist
This post originally appeared May 3, 2024, on Dan’s Journey Through Prostate Cancer. It is republished with permission.
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