Yet another study shows importance of not dallying before salvage radiation

 Getting started early with salvage radiation improves the odds of success, yet another study shows. In this study, an important PSA cutpoint was shown to be 0.25 ng/ml:

"In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Derya Tilki, MD, and colleagues identified a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level cutpoint, above which initiation of salvage radiation therapy after radical prostatectomy was associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality in patients with prostate cancer."  Source: The ASCO Post, March 7, 2023. https://ascopost.com/news/march-2023/psa-level-at-time-of-salvage-radiation-therapy-after-radical-prostatectomy-and-risk-of-all-cause-mortality/

In my case, because my urologist wasn't watching me like a hawk, and because Christmas and New Year's hit at the time I was trying to make appointments, I started SRT much later than 0.25.  I was fortunate that it still worked, and apparently cured my cancer.

16 years after salvage radiation, my PSA...

Just had a PSA done--still less than 0.10.  I had been frantic a couple of years ago when I had two ultrasensitive tests done just over a year apart. The first one showed .02, and was the first PSA that was "detectable" since salvage radiation did its job in 2007. Then in 2021 I had another ultrasensitive test. It was 0.05, or more than double.  I went to a prostate cancer oncologist, who reassured me that it was probably nothing. He said he didn't order ultrasensitive tests for people like me (post-surgery, post-radiation). So we've gone with the regular assay.

If my PSA had really been rising at the rate it seemed to on the ultrasensitive test, I would have easily passed the 0.1 mark on the standard assay by now. The fact that it did not is quite reassuring.  I've now had multiple standard PSA tests, all "less than 0.1".  No threat.

Lymphoma, treatment for lymphoma, or more likely, my heart, is the real threat to making it as long as my parents have. Both parents are alive and well, in the 80s and 90s.  My grandmother is over 105! 

Anyway, that's it for now.