Is a PSA reading of 4.8 High???

[maverick2112]

Thanks for all the responses..........my friend got his results today and we both were kind of shocked. The Dr. said they had found it in 2 places and now the want to run some other tests (bone scans ) I believe..........I just hope since he has it they have caught it early enough so that he can be treated successfully. Needless to say he didnt want to talk to much so I didnt get a lot of info from him on what the Dr. actually said.........except that his results were not what we both were hoping for. I think he just needed some time alone to think and I didnt hink it was the time to ask a lot of questions.......

 

[maverick2112]

Well, consider yourself an addition to those who find it easy to hurl personal insults. What that says about you is for yourself to judge I guess.

So until you can take care of your own problems, I advise you to refrain from attacking another's personality -- especially someone who you do not know. One would assume that that is not good form for a nurse.

Not too sure what I said that brings about people flying off the handle or the attack dogs to come out, other than offering accurate, precise information.

Any other questions about the Gleason grading system and what exactly it is, I would be glad to be helpful.

Dr Freeze...............I was just thinking.......could he have the cancer somewhere else and it has spread to his prostate???
Just wondering if an occurance like this is very common.......or even possible???

 

[dr. freeze]

Good question

Rarely do we ever find another tumor which has spread to the prostate. It is simply not a spot where cancers like to go.

Prostate cancer looks a bit different from other cancers microscopically so it is likely to be this cancer. In addition, the pathologist may have found PIN (Prostate Intraepithelial Neoplasia) which is considered to be pre-malignant and this may have led to the cancer.

If the pathologist had a doubt as to if this cancer was a primary, he would have used an immunohistochemical stain binding to PSA which is not expressed by many other tissues/cancer. However, I doubt he had to do this.

Also, given the elevation in PSA, one would suspect that this was a primary causing this elevation.

Epidemiologically, prostate is one of the most common tumors as well, so this also adds to the probablility that he is dealing with a prostate primary adenocarcinoma.

Hopefully the tumor is currently confined to the prostate and that your friend will be one of the modern day medicine success stories as PSA test might have caught it soon enough.

You have to hang on to every bit of hope and use as much encouragement as you can with your pal, because he will need it all as he goes through many difficult times ahead regardless of whether it is confined or not as surgery down there is not ideal in the least. If he has the resources try to find the BEST surgeon he can who does prostate surgery almost exclusively (given surgery is the road he goes down). A prostate resection is very difficult as many nerves which we use down there pass through the tissue so side effects are inevitable.

 

[Beebs]

Good question

Rarely do we ever find another tumor which has spread to the prostate. It is simply not a spot where cancers like to go.

Prostate cancer looks a bit different from other cancers microscopically so it is likely to be this cancer. In addition, the pathologist may have found PIN (Prostate Intraepithelial Neoplasia) which is considered to be pre-malignant and this may have led to the cancer.

If the pathologist had a doubt as to if this cancer was a primary, he would have used an immunohistochemical stain binding to PSA which is not expressed by many other tissues/cancer. However, I doubt he had to do this.

Also, given the elevation in PSA, one would suspect that this was a primary causing this elevation.

Epidemiologically, prostate is one of the most common tumors as well, so this also adds to the probablility that he is dealing with a prostate primary adenocarcinoma.

Hopefully the tumor is currently confined to the prostate and that your friend will be one of the modern day medicine success stories as PSA test might have caught it soon enough.

You have to hang on to every bit of hope and use as much encouragement as you can with your pal, because he will need it all as he goes through many difficult times ahead regardless of whether it is confined or not as surgery down there is not ideal in the least. If he has the resources try to find the BEST surgeon he can who does prostate surgery almost exclusively (given surgery is the road he goes down). A prostate resection is very difficult as many nerves which we use down there pass through the tissue so side effects are inevitable.

Freeze,
you have taken quite a kick in the balls for your posts in this thread but I have to say that that was a very considerate, informative, and well thought out post that most likely helped at the very least one member of this forum.

Best of luck and God bless to anyone fighting illness or supporting someone who is.

Hopefully in the mean time everyone is enjoying life as much as possible and making some money gambling, which is why this site is here in the first place

 

[shamrock]

everything freeze states about side effects is reality, tough reality for a young guy like your buddy. The surgery is no guarantee of a cure, and side effects involving incontinence & sexual problems are definite possibilities. A Family friend recently had prostate surgery, the surgery actually was performed by a robot, this was in Florida. This was maybe 3 months ago, at that time there were extremely few of these robot machines in the country, maybe six or so. I know some were in Florida, 2 were in Boston. The theory being that the surgery is so delicate involving nerves, that the robot is much steady than the best surgeon.

This was a extremely wealthy man, and I don't know about your friend, but can't help to educate yourself on it. The best surgeons in Boston advised him to go the robot route and he is currently doing pretty well.

I don't know much about this at all, freeze can probably tell you more about it. But I do know it is happening.

 

[maverick2112]

Well.......he got good news and bad news.............his cancer has not spread but the dr. advised him to get his prostate removed with the surgery.......hard to believe he has to go through this kind of surgery if he chooses.......he is a year younger than me (43) and he seems to be in good health. I guess one never knows....the blessing is that the reason he got tested was that his father was diagonised with advanced prostate cancer a few weeks back and his family thought it would be a good idea for the 3 boys to get checked.......

If anyone else has any advice I can tell him I will send it on.....

Thanks everyone................