Question: Reoccurance, PSA doubling time after treatment

It seems that with a reoccurance after treatment, surgery or radiation, the PSA doubling time usually increases radically. Before treatment the PSA doubling time is usually 2-4 years and yet on a reocurrance it may be months.

Does anyone know why this happens. I read one theory that treatment changes the biology of the cancer, and because it doesn't have any prostate tissue the remaining cells become more agressive.

In all my research I haven't run across any good explaination for this and it seems like this is important and we should know what causes PSA doubling time to increase on reoccurrances and if the treatment itself is making the cancer more agressive.

JohnT

John,
I have seen this go both ways. For example I have seen guys spike from a PSA from 2 to 5 or more in a single year of screenng, then elect to have surgery, then start a period of remission. But after 6 months or more some test at 0.1, then 0.15 then 0.17 over the next 6 to 12 months. In fact, I don't find this anymore common either way after treatment. You can see this in many signatures here. Recurrance is gradual in many cases. And BTW, it does not matter if the treatment modality was surgery, EBRT, HT, Cryo, or whatever.

Tony