PSA Test Scores Give A Very Good Indication Of The Presence of Aggressive Prostate Cancer - By: Don Saunders

The PSA test is a simple blood test which is Often used as a screening test to detect the presence of an enlarged prostate gland and of prostate cancer. While the test cannot in itself be used to diagnose these conditions it is a good indicator and, alongside other tests, PSA testing can point to the need for additional investigation.

The test is normally recommended for men at particular risk (such as those with a family history of prostate cancer) once they reach the age of about 40 to 45 and for all men once they reach 50 years of age.

An isolated PSA test will give a snapshot of prostate specific antigen levels in the blood and may show a problem immediately if you have particularly high psa numbers. In the majority of cases however, and when a prostate problem may be in its early development, a single PSA test result will turn out to be inconclusive and another test will normally be recommended a few weeks later. Indeed, if possible PSA testing ought to be done at regular intervals two or three times each year so that PSA levels can be seen over a reasonable period of time.

Provided that you register a normal PSA score then all is well, but when your PSA levels start to increase they have to be monitored closely. The speed with which PSA levels rise is generally referred to as the 'PSA velocity' and providing the increase is steady and the velocity slow then it is once again frequently sufficient merely to monitor the situation as a lot of things can influence PSA levels and evidently rising levels will frequently return to normal in time.

However, when PSA test levels begin to increase rapidly and the velocity is said to be fast then further investigation is necessary.

This pattern of PSA testing and monitoring has been done for some considerable time but, while the test has long been considered to be a good indicator of the requirement for additional investigation, it was not until quite recently that we have been in a position to link specific PSA velocity to prostate cancer in a fashion which can indicate how aggressive prostate cancer is.

In a recent study data from 950 men who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and undergone either radiation treatment or surgery between 1988 and 2004 at four hospitals was scutinized.

In all cases the patients had been diagnosed as having aggressive prostate cancer on the basis of an isolated very high PSA reading, the presence of an advanced stage tumor, the results of a biopsy showing signs of an aggressive cancer at cellular level, a noticeable rise in PSA velocity during the year before diagnosis or a mixture of two or more of these indicators.

The study also looked at the outcomes for all of the patients and discovered that a rapidly rising PSA level which jumped by 2 or more points in a year was the clearest indicator or the presence of an aggressive cancer.

Until this point we have been able to associate rising PSA test scores with the possible presence of prostate cancer but it has been necessary to guess to a fair degree about whether such a cancer might be aggressive and require correspondingly aggressive intervention.

Now however we are able to say with reasonable certainty that if a PSA level increases by more than 2 points in a twelve month period then prostate cancer is almost certain to be aggressive and needs to be treated quickly and vigorously.

About the Author

ProstateProblemCenter.com provides information on the free PSA test and on PSA normal score

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