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It’s Been A 26-Year Long PSA Journey
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: 15 hours ago | Replies (23)Comment receiving replies
My PSA was only 4.2, slightly above high normal for my age. And I had BPH at the time. So I was confident that it wasn't cancer. It was the good ol' digital exam that found a lump, confirmed by biopsy. So I dont think you can count on PSA as an indicator alone.
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@marlon True. Usually cannot count on PSA alone. (However. I know 3 guys who had PSAs of 11,700, 7,800, and 3,500, respectively. In those cases, PSA was a certainty of aggressive & advanced prostrate cancer.)
But, for everyone else, more than just PSA is needed. And since a lot of guys don’t even get a PSA test because they don’t want a DRE, many guys are skipping prostate screening altogether (which is why some Centers aren’t promoting DREs as much).
Even in this recent Super Bowl, there was a commercial promoting the “finger free” prostate cancer screening:
> (news report): https://youtu.be/XnqU3aRjd-U
> (the full commercial here): https://youtu.be/lMTcZb48aVU
Statistically, they’ve found that even when an irregularity is felt with a DRE, that 50% of the time it’s benign.
> and even if a non-benign irregularity was felt with a DRE, 90% of the time an MRI would’ve picked it up anyway.
So, with many guys not getting any prostate cancer screening for that reason, some centers are trending away from DREs (unless you really want one), and going directly to an MRI following an elevated PSA (after ruling out other simple causes).