My 21yr old son and PSA test

Hi guys.
I know some may disagree with checking a 21 year old PSA count, but with my PC history, we felt it was better to stay ahead of the beast.

Last week was my sons yearly physical, and since I was diagnosed with PC this past December, we had the doctor do a PSA test with the rest of his blood work. It came back with a PSA of 0.9

I'm assuming this is normal for a 21 year old, or should it be even lower??
I was expecting it to be lower, around the 0.1 range.
With a PSA of 0.9 is it still considered undetectable?

With my history, I know he will be getting checked earlier than the recommended age and hopefully with good health habits and whatever else he can do, he will or can, avoid future PC problems.

With a PSA of 0.9 is it still considered undetectable?

Since you are talking about a 21-year old who has his prostate, why would you expect it to be undetectable?

Any male with a prostate will be producing some PSA, so never could be undetectable, so the <.10 standard we use for the "zero" club here is for those men post PC treatments only.

My oldest son (35) had his done as a base line recently, it was .4 btw. My youngest son (28) promises he will follow his brother on his 35th birthday.

david

This topic is on my mind too.

Tomorrow is my 1-week followup from LARP. I plan to ask the surgeon at what age my sons should begin to be screened for PCa.

I was diagnosed at 41 (but surely the PCa was detectable a few years earlier).
My sons are currently 16 and 9, so plenty of time before anything will need to be done.

-Gedman

As others have said, your son has a prostate, it makes sense that he has some PSA in his system.
As for testing, even with a family history, I'm not sure I see the point at testing at age 21.
Why?
OK, lets say it is slightly elevated......are you really going to then send your 21 year old for a biopsy, which could cause more harm than good?
All you'll likely achieve is stress for all involved.

I was in to see my doc for a checkup last week. I had a cholesterol test about 6 months ago, and it was a little higher than I expected. I asked her if we should recheck, and she said "no, just eat healthier, I'm not putting you on statin drugs anyway for a slightly elevated level."
Make sense? I think so.

Water guy-

Yes, I'm expecting the surgeon to advise that my sons being screening at 30. I'll let you know tomorrow.

(Note: I'm 3+4, not 4+3.)

-Gedman

My grandfather got PCa in his 80s, I found it at 40, looks like my dad might have it now he's 67.

My son will get a baseline for sure, I hope he does by 35.

I definitely respect everyone's choices and fully understand how we all want to protect our children.

Personally, I remember what life was like at 21. Not a concern in the world and enjoying college. Cancer/mortality was the last thing on my mind and I would like to afford my son the same freedom/ignorance whatever you want to call it.

As for your son's score, I remember reading two themes when I was first told my PSA might be a bit high at 2.4. The old school said anything under 4.0 was safe, while the newer school said anything under 2.0 is safe. Assuming there are no symptoms of course.

Now your son has a baseline, one that will stretch back longer than most people's and it will come in handy in the decades to come.

iSpark said...
br />Whatever the level of PSA, however the medical community "sees it", at what point does it become a concern?? That was the point I was trying to get to.

I think the real thing to observe is the trending over a period of years. If it trends upward, but very slowly, it could be attributed to age as the years pass.

The real trick is to watch for spikes in the readings -- a sudden increase that is somewhat dramatic instead of a slow, upward trend.

A spike in PSA is a medical red flag being raised.

Chuck

Resident of Highland, Indiana just outside of Chicago, IL.
July 2011 local PSA lab reading 6.41 (from 4.1 in 2009). Mayo Clinic PSA Sept. 2011 was 5.7.
Local urologist DRE revealed significant BPH, but no lumps.
PCa Dx Aug. 2011 at age of 61.
Biopsy revealed adenocarcinoma in 3 of 20 cores (one 5%, two 20%). T2C.
Gleason score 3+3=6.
CT of abdomen, bone scan both negative.
DaVinci prostatectomy 11/1/11 at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN), nerve sparing, age 62.
My surgeon was Dr. Matthew Tollefson, who I highly recommend.
Final pathology shows tumor confined to prostate.
5 lymph nodes, seminal vesicles, extraprostatic soft tissue all negative.
1.0 x 0.6 x 0.6 cm mass involving right posterior inferior,
right posterior apex & left mid posterior prostate.
Right posterior apex margin involved by tumor over a 0.2 cm length, doctor says this is insignificant.
Prostate 98.3 grams, tumor 2 grams. Prostate size 5.0 x 4.7 x 4.5 cm.
Catheter out in 7 days. No incontinence, occasional minor dripping.
Post-op exams 2/13/12, 9/10/12, PSA <0.1.
Semi-firm erections now happening 14 months post-op & slowly getting a bit stronger.

I was diagnosed with PCa a few months ago at the age of 41. Today, Dr. Ash Tewari told me that my sons should have a PSA test and a prostate MRI when they turn 30.

He said that the PCA number and the MRI images give a good baseline for tracking changes as they get older.

Of course, I hope that by the time my sons (currently ages 9 and 15) become 30 there will be even better tools to prevent/detect/treat PCa than we have today.

-Gedman

At the risk of getting skewered, it seems a bit over the top to start screening at 21.
I
You don't want to turn the kid into a nervous wreck.

Ok, you got a so-called baseline, but I'm not sure how meaningful it is for a 21-year old. If you want to track his PSA, I would hope you would do it every 5 years, NOT every year!

My son will be 35 in October. Guess what his first-time birthday gift is going to be?

Mel

i'm assuming it is decreasing with all the early testing. However, think I read that average age is still 67. A good 27 years more than I was.