Red,
There are well-known, documented limitations of the PSA test. It is an imperfect test. But, you have an elevated result which warrants further examination. There are a few things, however, you should know BEFORE going further.
- At nearly 60 years of age, your likelihood of having some form of the condition they call "prostate cancer" is about 60%. The percent likelihood is about equal to your age. In other words, it is a natural part of aging. Most men over 50 have it, and most will never know they have it and it will never affect their lives. It will also not affect the lives of most who do discover that they have it, but many seek treatment for it anyhow simply because of the fear generated by the word "cancer." At the same time, there are a realtively small percentage of the total number of cases which are very serious, and most recently 28,800 men in the US died of the disease. The objective of prostate cancer detection today is not to determine whether you "have it" or not (because at age 60 you probably do); rather, it is to determine whether you have a "serious" case which needs treatment or not.
- Detecting tumors does not always mean saving lives: When used in screening, the PSA test can detect small tumors. However, finding a small tumor does not necessarily reduce a man's chances of dying from prostate cancer. PSA testing may identify very slow-growing tumors that are unlikely to threaten a man's life. Also, PSA testing may not help a man with a fast-growing or aggressive cancer that has already spread to other parts of his body before being detected.
- False-positive test results (also called false positives) occur when the PSA level is elevated but no cancer is actually present. False positives may lead to additional medical procedures that have potential risks and significant financial costs and can create anxiety for the patient and his family. Most men with an elevated PSA test result turn out not to have cancer; only 25 to 35 percent of men who have a biopsy due to an elevated PSA level actually have prostate cancer.
- False-negative test results (also called false negatives) occur when the PSA level is in the normal range even though prostate cancer is actually present. Most prostate cancers are slow-growing and may exist for decades before they are large enough to cause symptoms. Subsequent PSA tests may indicate a problem before the disease progresses significantly.
Your exact situation righ now is smack-dab at the place where today's leading medical professionals say behaviors need to change through PATIENT EDUCATION. Men often move quickly from one elevated PSA test result into a biopsy, their doctor "finds cancer," and then they want to move quickly to an aggressive treatment...when a very large number of the cases are low-risk and really need no aggressive treatment at all. The problem is that many men don't get educated/empowered IN ADVANCE of this rapid chain of events to understand the wide differences in low-risk cases and high-risk cases. It is widely believe by the leadership of all the relevant medical societies—every single one of them—that better patient education at the point you are at right now will help to reduce the wide-spread prostate cancer overtreatment of low-risk cases; but unfortunately not all of the clinicians in the field are making evidenced-based recommendations to their patients.
Your rise in PSA warrants looking into. The rapid rise does not fit the profile of the vast, vast majority of "serious" prostate cancer cases. Have it looked into, although know also that the root causes of infections and other benign causes of PSA rise are difficult to pinpoint. And know, too, that your likelihood of already having some minor form of detectable prostate cancer is above 50%.
Post Edited (JackH) : 6/11/2014 3:57:34 PM (GMT-6)