Great to see this thread resurrected. I had PSA tests done for years. Probably since age 40. Several years ago, my doc noticed a small bump in my PSA, and he sent me for a biopsy, which found cancer.

Fortunately, it was still within prostate, and after surgery, PSA# has been ZERO. I cant stress how important that simple blood test can be to your life!

Cheers,
Bill

I get mine checked every year. It's not my favorite day.

Men's health is ignored at-large. We die much younger than women, yet all of the attention (walks, runs, and other campaigns) is on women's health. No one is going to pay attention to your health except you. Get a regular checkup. A friend of mine went in for his annual and his blood pressure was way up..... An aortic aneurysm was found and fixed. Another had the colonoscopy that found cancer. Twenty years later, he's still fine. GO GET CHECKED!

Prostate
 

I'll be going again tomorrow ... been having mine checked for several years. God Bless you and your family and may your Dad find Peace.

The good news (for me) is that I am 79 and I don't have to have anymore PSAs or colonoscopies ….. when I asked my doctor why , he said it was likely at my age I would die with prostrate cancer rather than from it....that is the bad news (for me)....

When I asked him why not a simple PSA, he said.... I have no symptoms.... and that my previous tests were excellent...... and in any case the test is not very reliable..... and if I had a troubling result...... he would be obligated to follow up with a biopsy.....when I found out how that was done....I agreed with him....

You youngsters need to get tested.....if you want to get old like me....

Yeah, Bart, you're right! Had the biopsy before my surgery, and it was not very pleasant. Not to mention the infection we had to fight before surgery could be done. GET CHECKED GUYS!

At 72 I thought I had experienced almost all of the pleasant and unpleasant things I would experience in my lifetime. Found a new one though.. Called a Systiscope. If you've not experienced it, it quite a time. They run a fiberoptic through the urethra and the bladder and the prostate. You can watch on the scree. Interesting to watch but not necessarily to experience. Now I know there is a roto rooter process for clearing up what was referred to as an "extremely nodular prostate". No cancer just a lot of "nodules" (what ever the hell those are from). So next report will be about the clean up.. stand by.. to stand bye..
Get it checked. It's a lot better knowning that it's not cancer.

I've been watching my PSA for a few years now, have been watching a cancer spot that has begun to move. It's time to have it removed in November before it goes any further.

I am 53 and was just diagnosed with prostate cancer. Had my PSA checked on 7/31/18 and it was high. Had it re-checked on 9/6 and the number had doubled. Biopsy done on 10/5 (not pleasant). Cancer was confirmed. Having a full body bone scan and CT scan done this Friday to see if it has spread outside the prostate. Cannot believe I am posting this. Time to go for a ride in SP0703.

I'm so sorry to hear of your news MCoop.

Gary

Having just been through a prostate scare with fortunately good results, I wanted to add a few thoughts to this thread.

As the starter of this thread testified, some prostate cancers are VERY deadly, so it's important to keep an eye on PSA numbers and act quickly to investigate changes. It could save your life.

However, the PSA test actually has low correlation to dangerous prostate cancer, and so there are many "false positives" where an increased PSA number does not lead to the discovery of dangerous cancer.

Unlike almost all other cancers, many types of prostate cancer are not dangerous, and the "cure" may lead to a worse life (for example, loss of bladder control and/or sexual ability) than living with the cancer.

Old-school urologists are essentially surgeons, and as such the traditional cure to any possible cancer danger was removal of the prostate. This is necessary in some cases, but not in most.

The traditional "transrectal" biopsy is performed through the rectum, a bacteria-filled part of the body. The biopsy samples are taken on a grid pattern, which can miss cancer spots. And even though strong antibiotics are taken before this procedure, many lives are lost every year due to infections from the diagnostic biopsy procedure! (In one video I watched, the doctor said this method should more accurately be called a trans-fecal biopsy.) Seems like dark-ages technology to me.

A more modern and safer way (and what I had done) is a trans-perineal biopsy (where the needle is inserted through the perineum, what we call the "taint" lol).

I had to change doctors to find one using this newer procedure, which is still pretty rare in the United States. First a prostate MRI is done to identify any possible suspicious spots. Then during the biopsy, they use ultrasound to make sure they sample those areas, as well as a random sampling through the prostate.

Here's one article about the new method. https://today.uconn.edu/2020/09/safe...ostate-biopsy/

If cancer is discovered from the biopsy, each sample with cancer is tested to see what type of cancer it is. Most are harmless, and for most men, the best path forward is to continue to monitor PSA etc. for changes. (Of course, some are not harmless, and in that case, it's important to act quickly.)

I was very lucky, no cancer of any type was found in the dozens of samples taken in my biopsy.

The whole subject is VERY complicated. Fortunately, there are free books that will help you understand the topic so you can have intelligent discussions with your providers. These are not pamphlets, they are detailed books. I found them very helpful.

https://www.pcf.org/guide/

I hope this info may be helpful to some, and I hope your results are as good as mine luckily were.

PS You can scroll down here for a contact form to locate a doctor using the new biopsy method.
https://perineologic.com/prostate/#biopsyinfo

Don’t assume a negative biopsy is a guarantee of no cancer. I knew a gentleman who had an elevated PSA test, subsequent biopsy was negative. His doctor kept monitoring him over the course of the next 2 years with ever increasing PSA results and negative biopsies. When the biopsy finally resulted in a cancer diagnosis it was advanced. He lived a couple of more years, into his early 80s before the cancer took him. This gentleman knew something was wrong and trusted the biopsy results. A follow up with another doctor may have brought an earlier diagnosis and a better outcome? You need to be your own advocate, doctors are not perfect, they are also human.