My Father had his prostate removed last february do to cancer but his numbers are going higher and higher!! drs. are puzzled all tests show nothing ...is it possible to still have prostate cancer and no prostate? could they have left some in there? so confused please help if you can.
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Sometimes the prostate has been know to grow back. Another thought may be that the prostate cancer may have already spread somewhere else in his body, so the same cells that caused his cancer in the first place would now be located somewhere else causing his "numbers" to rise. I believe there are body scans that can be done to look for areas of abnormal tissue growth.
2 :
If his PSA after 2 years is not less than .2, then some of the cancer cells escaped before or during the operation and are in the system. It may be undetectable in the body for years. His doctors have probably done a bone scan. This is the most important test.
3 :
When the prostate is removed during radical prostatectomy it does not grow back. I had surgery in October for prostate cancer. "When the PSA rises after radical prostatectomy the relevant question is whether there is a local recurrence of the prostate cancer ( return of the cancer to the area where it was first identified) or a distant disease (metastatic disease). Overall, about 30% of men with detectable PSA levels after radical prostatectomy have local recurrences, whereas about 70% are anticipated to have distant disease alone or distant disease combined with local disease. Several options are available, including watchful waiting, external beam radiation therapy, and hormone therapy." "when the PSA is increasing after definitive therapy, the physician may want to re-stage the patient to determine where the cancer is. It is helpful in the decision making to determine whether the cancer is confined to the area where that prostate was, or in the pelvis, or whether it has spread outside of the prostate area, for example to the bones, or lymph nodes higher up in the abdomen. Methods used in this staging process may be a bone scan, a ProstaScint scan, and/or a CT scan of the abdomen and the pelvis." There is still hope of a cure with recurrent prostate cancer and with agressive treament early on, there is a better chance of effectively treating the cancer that has remained. Information is the best weapon to fight this disease, please take comfort in the fact that prostate cancer is a curable disease and there are many options for treatment, even when one treatment has failed. My prayers go to you and your family at this difficult time.
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