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Dave, As you may (or may not) know, the PSA test is NOT prostate cancer specific. In almost 70% of cases an isolated PSA test at your level will be associatd with some other cause. You might find it interesting to read the piece I have termed PSA 101
Have you had any previous PSA tests? I ask because, like many other tests, changes are often more important than absolute levels, at least at the level of your test. If you have had a series of tests that show an ever increasing PSA level, then it might well be in your interests to have a biopsy procedure.
On the other hand, if this is an isolated elevated level then you may consider taking these steps before having a biopsy because there are some potential hazards with the procedure:
1. Have a PSA re-test to ensure that there has not been an error in the laboratory. In doing this ensure that the same labratory is used and the same manufacturer's test apparatus. There can be signficant differences between different test protocols.
2. Ask your doctor to run tests for urinary, bladder or prostate infections. These are often very difficult to deal with but should be investigated. Doctors often prescribe a fairly substantial doses of an anti-biotic like Cipro. If your doctor proposes this course of action please discuss potential side effects, particularly as far as the risk of damage to tendons is concerned.
3. Have another test in a month or two's time and see if there is any signficant change in your PSA level.
Dave,
My doctor was reluctant to send me for a biopsy and waited for a few years while my PSA bounced around; that was a big mistake for me. Once you get a PSA over 10 then your chance of having cancer is greater than 50% so your chance is even greater than that with a PSA of 11. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night with those odds against me.
The biopsy was not that bad considering it was a test for cancer. You are at the hospital for about two hours. It had no side effects that lasted more than three days for me. Blood in urine and definitetly no sex for three days.
Dave - My PSA was 8.9 and because I had read that a PSA is often not reliable I didn't want to have a biopsy, in fact I was pretty scared of having a biopsy to boot. Never the less I was persuaded to have one and the actuality amounted to very little - I had no pain whatsoever, just blood in the urine for a couple of weeks. I made certain that I was given an anaesthetic for the biopsy. The biopsy showed that I had a Gleason Score of 9 which indicates an aggressive cancer, so it was just as well that I took the action I did.
Ken from NZ
