[cgarr]

Originally Posted by Nathans_Dad

The bottom line is that PSA is a bad test. It is falsely elevated the vast majority of times and falsely normal in a significant number of prostate cancers. It can be elevated by prostatitis, benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), prostate cancer, a rectal exam...and sometimes (I think) by holding your breath and crossing your eyes...just kidding.

Anyhow, I use PSA in my clinic because it is the only thing we have besides digital rectal exam for detection of prostate cancer. If the test is elevated then I will refer to a urologist for a possible ultrasound and biopsy.

Moses is right, prostate cancer is slow growing and sometimes not detected even on needle biopsy. If the PSA is normal and your DRE (digital rectal exam) is also normal then there is no indication for biopsy.

This is pretty much what my Doctor has been telling me for years now. I gave him my family history 10 years ago when I was 40 and he has been running regular yearly exams (remove watch, put on glove test) without any problems and explained what was said above, "we can do all these tests but what then?" He is looking at the long term, no knee jerk reactions from him like me. If it were up to me I would jerk the damn thing out but then I only work on cars not people, I do have a special Doc he sent me to for my kidney stones (all that area innards stuff) and that would be the one he would send me to if this becomes a problem or in need of further attention in the future. I do have a call in to the office just to see what my number was.