Sounds like your doctor felt something suspicious during the DRE which led to the biopsy. And, like me, you were very lucky that a 4+4 Gleason cancer was discovered and you’re doing OK.

I would say the DRE plus PSA together are the gold standard. Most of the time, Prostate cancer is first detected by a PSA test and the DRE may be negative. But for a small but significant number of men like us, the PSA is relatively low but the DRE is positive.

Many so-called experts have come out against the DRE and even against the PSA for reasons I can’t understand. Neither test is expensive, presents risks, has side effects or is costly. Their main argument-they can lead to more invasive tests which may not be necessary. This could happen…but today there are other relatively non invasive tests which can help eliminate false positives before a biopsy is needed, so the argument that an elevated PSA or suspicious DRE leads straight to the operating room just doesn’t make sense.