Is PSA a good indicator of response to therapy?
Question: I have been on a clinical trial with a new chemotherapeutic agent. My doctors take frequent PSA readings as well as scans. My PSA is going down and my scans are unchanged. Does this mean I am responding to my treatments? Answer: In most studies it does tend to correlate with response and improvement in disease-free survival and frequently overall survival. There are always, however, exceptions to this rule. It seems that a 30 percent decline 3 months after initiation of chemotherapy is most prognostic for survival in patients treated with chemotherapy.
