Quote:
Originally Posted by stevepaa
Get the number from him. Request a biopsy-no fun and it hurts. Then you will have information to make decisions.
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Sorry, bad advice. The vast majority of prostate cancers are not deadly. Doing a biopsy after a negative screening test is asking for trouble.
There are good statistic based protocols regarding when to do biopsies. Best to follow them.
I agree, you should have been told the number. With your age and your PSA result, it's easy to determine the proper follow up. Keep in mind that 70% of elevated PSA results are
false positives. One third of 50 year old men have already got prostate cancer and two thirds will have it by age 75, yet the vast majority will not die of prostate cancer whether they are treated or not. It's exceedingly difficult to predict which prostate cancers will grow rapidly and kill us and which cancers are slow growing indolent cancers that will never pose a health risk. Tread carefully.