I gotta good memory, but my subtraction aint worth....   You are correct.
It was six.

Fortunately (I guess), both are well documented on the Internet.  Berky was
3/1/98 and 11/23/99.

hi bev - you know - it's never been brought up as to the number past 100
or so as far as meaning.  we all know what a psa of 6, or 13, or 25
mean, but what about 159, 589, 832, or 1,495 or even 6,000?

in all my years, i have not found a direct relationship to the higher
numbers as to how they equate in the very low digits.

but here's is what i've observed.

regardless of what the high number is, if it will respond to treatment,
then we are in decent shape.  and when it doesn't, then we are in
trouble.  and the doubling factor is what indicates to us as to how fast
the cancer is growing and if we can do something to knock that psa
number back down, then we are staying on top of it.

so, with berky and robert young,  even though their numbers were
different, there is a good chance that they could both live as long
without one really outliving the other that much, even though, one had
higher numbers.  that is what i've learned.  and even the low numbers
aren't what they seem.

case in point, when my father's psa climbed to 288. that was the highest
it ever was.  now, there are a lot of folks who have had higher.  

my father did respond to lupron, but did go refractive.  and even though
he was T4c, his psa around the time of his death was about 40 to 50.
his organs were starting to shut down and he was passing blood when his
psa was in the 30's.  

in this part of the staging, it truly is a crap shoot.

if someone else can add more to this area of high psa's, i'm all ears.

~ curtis

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional