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Which PSA value is REMISSION?

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Posted 5/27/2011 1:51 AM (GMT -8)
Fellow Survivors I have a doubt    that only you could help me to dissipate with your acknowledgement.   Which PSA value is considered as REMISSION?   We read about threshold marks or mile-stones or triggers in the process of treatments but remission is only considered by oncologists. Dr. Myers uses PSA<0.01 as remission level in HT patients, whether Dr. Strum considers a PSA<0.05 as remission on his HT patients.     Many friends use the sentence, “… he is on remission …” with a meaning that the cancer progress reversed and doesn’t exist anymore.   What is right?   Thanks Baptista 
Posted 5/27/2011 2:09 AM (GMT -8)
Baptista:
undetectable PSA is <0.01
zero cub membership is PSA <0.01
zero club memberhsip = remission

-each doctor / urologist / surgeon may interpret numbers different - you can easily say - anything less than 0.01 is right.

I am in remission.

hugs,
BRONSON

p.s. the cancer still exists - it is just undetectable right now ....
Posted 5/27/2011 2:42 AM (GMT -8)
I always look at the numbers like currency.

.01 = one penny and that you are cancer poor

.05 = is pretty darn poor too

3.00 = a trip the URO

Posted 5/27/2011 3:03 AM (GMT -8)
To me remission is the point where PSA stabilizes and no longer is advancing. I read the story of a man who went the SRT and HT. After his PSA rose to around .45 and had ceased to increase from that point. Maybe he was maintaining that level with diet and suppliments. Who know. But to me he is in remission.
Posted 5/27/2011 4:09 AM (GMT -8)
Bronson, think you goofed, brother. Undectable and zero club admission is <.10, not <.01 as you stated.
Posted 5/27/2011 4:38 AM (GMT -8)
So, now this topic has me wondering:  Once you have PCa, will you always have PCa?  I mean, is there really no such thing as a cure for PCa, only various means of controlling it?
Posted 5/27/2011 4:54 AM (GMT -8)
HD_Rider,

My totally medically uneducated take on this is that "cure" means you die of something else, and during your life PCa isn't an issue --- i.e. you're not spending time, effort, energy, money, on treatment.

When your PSA is <0.01, or <0.02, or whatever, and stays there, year after year after year, you are in remission. The cancer has gone away in the sense that it is not increasing, or causing you any issues. Only an autopsy of the most picky sort would ever tell you if you were cured in the sense of the cancer being totally gone.

Sheldon AKA Sleepless
Posted 5/27/2011 7:14 AM (GMT -8)
Undetectable means that the PSA value is below what the testing instrument can measure, for example <0.1 ng/mL, <0.05 ng/mL, <0.01 ng/mL, <0.001 ng/mL. Most prostate cancer experts consider <0.1 ng/mL to be, for all intents and purposes, a zero.

An advantage of surgical removal of the prostate is that the pathologist can examine the entire prostate, its margins, the seminal vesicles, and any lymph nodes removed. If the cancer hasn't penetrated the capsule or gotten into the seminal vesicles or lymph nodes, you're cancer free and are extraordinarily likely to remain so until your death from another cause.
Posted 5/28/2011 8:12 AM (GMT -8)
this is one of those topics that the answer is as varied as cancer itself. I have heard the recurrent PCa is when the level reaches .2 however I see people that are well below that thinking they are having a relapse. For me I am looking for doubling time. My PSA has risen consistently over the last year and I suspect that June 30th it will be over the 1 mark.
I have no right answer other than to keep a close eye and be prudent in your decisions. Cancer is our enemy so we have to treat it as such

peace and love
Dale
Posted 5/28/2011 4:32 PM (GMT -8)
Thanks guys for the answers. I like your sincere comments. “Keep a close eye and be prudent in your decisions” may be the best translation for “Remission”. A number is just another “marker” which does not reflect the whole spectrum of one guys’ status. Remission could be taken with the meaning as absence of symptoms which indicates a successful treatment. Hope all of us become “pennyless and pretty darn poor” as Steve comments above.   The best to you. Baptista 
Posted 5/28/2011 8:50 PM (GMT -8)
Just to add....guess I don't think about "remission"....I just think about any "next steps". I've 5 years since diagnosis, so things have maybe changed a bit. After surgery, my PSA rose. WHen it rose above .2, the "next step" was radiation.

My PSA was <.1 until a year ago...it's been right at .1 three times in a row. My oncologist told me stories of PSA rising to low dectable leves, then just staying put. For now, at .1 the "next step" is to get it checked again in six months.

Since I've had all the local treatments I can get, if my PSA starts moving up again, the "next step" would be hormone therapy. But they usually don't start that up until your PSA hits maybe 10 or higher.

In the mean time, my other "next step" is not to worry about it, take came of myself and my family, and live a good life.
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