40-60 yrs...how was your PCa discovered?

As a side note to this. If they found it from a PSA test and you are under 50, why did you have the test done?

My uro who I saw twice a year let my psa rise from 1.8 to 4.6 over a period of three years, all the while telling me I was ok it was under 4. So I check misdiagnosed. Haven't seen him since he sent me to Emory and will never again. It didn't take me a day after diagnosis to find out about psa velocity, certainly he should have known!

A nodule was also felt.

Nurse mentioned I had no PSA test on file at age 56.

Did one, world changed. The rest is history.

Last October my husband presented with a sudden alarming symptom: a lot of blood in his urine. He'd always had normal PSAs and no other urinary issues whatsover. His internist ordered a PSA, 3.32 not super high and put him on antibiotics. He continued to have visible blood off and on during that 2-week period, so he was referred to a urologist. Since the DRE felt abnormal, the urologist ordered a prostate biopsy. Gleason 9!

Turns out my husband is one of those guys with a high Gleason, low PSA. This means the tumor was so abnormal, it didn't produce much PSA. He's been on Lupron for nearly a year, with two more years to go. He's gotten through IMRT without side effects so far, though that could change. Now we just watch for the PSA nadir, which could take a year or more. His most recent PSA, three months after radiation was .14. A recent cystoscopy allowed the urologist to finally see that a formerly twisted ureter up near the bladder was straightened out. So the prostate has shrunken a great deal--a good thing.

jpenn44 said...
As a side note to this. If they found it from a PSA test and you are under 50, why did you have the test done?

Thank goodness for my PCP.

I was tested for T, and it was low, when I was 47. I was on a statin too so I went to the doctor 2x a year already. I told him about my family history as well.

He prescribed me a shot for T, and I guess he got a baseline PSA (2.5). I was supposed to come back in three months to have blood work, but I was feeling great and waited 10 months. He came in the room looking like he'd seen a ghost and said, "Your PSA is up to 4.6. You were supposed to come in six months ago, why didn't you?"

He then said, "I need to get you to see a urologist".

Dignosed at 48, sent to uro by my GP after high PSA showed up on blood tests.

I had never had had an annual physical. I'm a Brit and it's not normal in the UK. I live in Holland and it's not normal here either.

I had thus said to myself that I would have a full physical when I was 50.

I had no symptons of anything. I simply thought that a physical at 50 would merely be setting the base line against which future measurements could be compared as I aged.

However, when I was 48 I was cycling past my GP's office one afternoon and thought to myself: "Hey wait sec, I'd feel really silly if they found something wrong with me when I was 50 that it would have been better of they had found earlier!!!!"

So I got off my bike went in and made an appointment for the next day.

The next day my GP thus did the usual basics:
checked my blood pressure, (okay)
listened to my chest, (okay)
checked my height and weight. (okay)
asked how much I drink (a little),
if smoke (no)
if I had trouble peeing (no)
if I had trouble having sex (no)
etc
She then filled in a form to send me to a hospital to get a blood and urine test. She ran down the list talking to herself more than me about what they should test for.
She paused, looked at me and said that maybe they could test my PSA too.

NOW....I had never heard of PSA or PSA testing. I thought the only way to test for PCa was still the finger up the rectum. (My physical had not included a DRE!). So I said: sure if you think it's worth it.

So next day I peed in a cup and gave blood.

The day after that I spoke to the doc on the phone about the results and she told me that my PSA was higher than it should be and could I come on again.

During the second appointment she told me my PSA was high enough to merit a visit to a urologist for a biopsy. She also gave me a DRE.
Now a DRE was not a big issue for me, but I think that coming to terms with having your first DRE is probably easier if the person doing it is a woman with small hands, who is very gentle! (I was to expereince a few male urologists with big hands later and it was defintiely less comfortable.)
The DRE showed no signs of my prostate being enlarged or mishapen.

The rest is histroy as they say. But crucially it turned out that I was T3a/b and my PCa was already out of the gland, so waiting till I was 50 could have ended up with a very different outcome. (My latest RT appointment basically said that thanks to surgery and SRT and having been in the xero club for about 5 years I am now deemed to be cured!)

So, somehow my guardian angel was around that week, firstly to make me make the GP appointment, and secondly to make the GP decide to include the PSA test when filling in the test form.
And I often feel weird about this as I obviously still cycle past the GP's office quite regularly!

Alf
(Sorry for the long post)

Alf,
Loved your post. No apologies needed. Your response and others of young men who "stumbled" upon a dx early was the very thing that prompted me to start this thread. There are a lot of younger guys here that range from G6 to G9, and the common theme is the early detection by a proactive GP (or pure chance) for the guys who caught it in the early stages. Unfortunately, the guys who are more advanced like Gary are often the result of "someone dropped the ball". Mostly the GPs. And it doesn't seem to matter where you live either. It is my opinion that we will begin to see more men with advanced PCa without a change in attitude about PSA screening among the medical community. Ah, but I am preaching to the choir!

Low energy, reduced libido, reduced mental acuteness.
That ended up to be low testosterone. GP did a battery of tests at the time to diagnose. PSA was one of them. Came in high.

The categories of the poll didn't quite fit - "symptoms" weren't really for PCa, but that was closest.

Celebrate, my long time Dr. also became less enamored with PSA tests too. Knowing what I know now, I don't get it. For me, I had no symptoms & was an athlete and middle distance runner who had completed several rounds of P90x and was in fantastic shape. My PSA was around 2.5 three years ago. My doc took a look at me and suggested we stop running the test and explained his rationale. Not knowing any better, I said "ok". Fast forward 3 years, my doc has now moved to California and I gotta find a new doc. First thing he says is "you haven't had a PSA test in several years. We should run one". It probably saved my life as my urologist now says I've likely had this for a few years before the actual diagnosis.

Mine was discovered when I went to local GP for a flu vaccination. GP decided to give me a physical blood test ect huge surprise not only PC but also bladder cancer absolutely no symptoms.
Tony W