October 27th, 2010 |

Prostate cancer screening – Gentlyweeps.com previously wrote articles about Omega 3 Fish Oil Supplements, Prostate Cancer Treatment, and Prostate Problems. Now we are talking about Prostate cancer screening. Prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test and Digital rectal examination (DRE) are used in screening people for prostate cancer.

Prostate specific antigen (PSA) Testin. PSA is a protein produced by the prostate gland and released to the blood stream. Normally the value of PSA is <4ng /ml. The normal value in elderly people is slightly higher than in younger people . So a lower cut off level of <2.6ng/ml is used in younger people when PSA testing is done. Values above 10ng/ml are considered ‘high’ and values between 4 and 10 are considered ‘intermediate’. Values of PSA are raised in many conditions of prostate, which includes cancer. Other conditions where PSA is raised are BPH ( Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy) and prostatitis. Values of PSA are normally raised in elderly people as mentioned in the earlier article. PSA testing is not prostate cancer specific but prostate specific, in that it’s not only raised in prostate cancer but other conditions of prostate also and not raised in diseases associated with other organs of the body.

Prostate cancer screening

As can be surmised from the above discussion every person with an elevated PSA level is not suffering from cancer of prostate and needs further work up to arrive at a final diagnosis. When should screening for prostate cancer begin ? the recommendation is for men above 50 years to undergo annual screening test , along with DRE ( with an anticipated survival of >10 years. This includes men up to 76 years ). African-American males and men with a family history of prostate cancer, are advised screening annually beginning at 40 years of age.