PSA 16.8 NO CANCER

High PSA and cancer are NOT synonomous. It has taken me 7 years, 3 biopsies, and so many sleepless nights to realize this fact. When my husband was first tested at age 50 he had a PSA of 8. His Bioposy was negative. PSA rose again slightly the next test about 2 years later and we chose not to do another biopsy. In the meantime, my mother passed away after a long battle with cancer, so I forgot stay on top of my husband about going to the Dr. and 3 years later his PSA had risen to an 11.5. His primary care Dr said not to worry because it was a slow rise, and it was large PSA jumps that we had to worry about. The next year it was 13.5. (JUMP!)We did an MRI guided biopsy. The MRI showed 2 areas of concern (heart drop). Surprise, no cancer, even in the "areas of concern". One year later was the killer: 16.8. Ok, we are pretty sure there is some form of cancer. 18 needle guided biopsy later--NO CANCER. My husband is just one of those guys with high PSA. He has had chronic prostatitis throughout his life, and, although he experiences no symptoms of an enlarged prostate, they said that his was quite large. So have FAITH. Pray, and try to be calm (very hard, I know). 75% of all biopsies come back negative. These PSA tests do NOT indicate cancer, they are just a reason to watch and be diligent. There is a very good chance that high pSA's are from a reason other than cancer. :)

Post Edited (behealed) : 3/2/2016 11:18:37 AM (GMT-7)

My brother in law has had very high PSA (high 20's) for years and all biopsies have been negative. However, his father dies from an aggressive form, so he watches it closely. On the other hand, a member here, JohnT, had increasing PSA over several years which got to 40 and some 13 biopsies before his cancer was found. Some areas of the prostate are not well sampled by the biopsy and can be missed.

Stay diligent. Biopsies can only confirm the presence of cancer. They can not confirm the absence of cancer. And as we know PSA is only a positive indicator of PCa for men that have been treated for PCa and then experience an increase in PSA. It is not a cancer test, per se.

compiler said...
There is something called a saturation biopsy. As the name implies, they take a lot more than the usual 12 cores.
It might be worth looking into.

Mel

Riiight...in other words, if you look harder, you might find something; probably something small. (Then what?)

Hi Behealed. I think it is great that your husband has had no positive biopsies yet even though his PSA continues to rise. With a large prostate, he may have some BPH causing the rise, even though no BPH symptoms. Did he happen to do a PSA free or PHI?

behealed, Were these psa tests only the standard tests, or were others like fpsa, PHI, and PCA3 also run?

Have the DRE exams always been non-remarkable?

Biopsies are not fun (I've had five, with probably more to come). But, his doctors are going to feel compelled to keep doing them or other tests in the future.

I've had psa spikes, some from 2 to 12 and back again, but they always resolved themselves over time. A steady rise, like you are describing, will probably invite continual testing.

behealed, Do you know how high psa can go from BPH? I've been trying to find an answer to that. I've heard of psa going above 5,000 in rare cases of advanced cancer. But, have not read cases of BPH causing psa above 20. That could be way low. Have you been told that 16 or a much higher number is possible with BPH? Thanks

My girlfriends Dad had a psa in the upper 20's, had multiple biopsys and could find no cancer. His friend had a similar situation, finally went to NIH and did one of their MRI trials, eventually did the targeted biopsy and found the cancer. Her Dad finally did the same trial and after 3 years of 3tMRIs and some more biopsys, nothing. He has done further testing and nothing (even did the biopsy/Halo testing). I think after years of testing he finally is accepting that he does not have cancer and can back off a little on his search though he will continue with the yearly MRI at NIH. He does have a large prostate so they are thinking that is the main issue.

We talk about the bright side of his search, he did a lot of legwork and gathered a lot of knowledge so when I was diagnosed he had a lot to share with us. Plus his familiarity with NIH led to my treatment there. Funny how things work out sometimes....Jim