PSA Scores Afford A Very Good Indication Of An Aggressive Prostate Cancer
Posted: Sunday, December 02, 2007
by William Hazelhurst
Help Me To Sleep
The Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test is a simple blood test that is commonly used to screen for the presence of benign enlargement of the prostate gland and of prostate cancer. In spite of the fact that the test cannot by itself be used to diagnose these conditions it is an excellent indicator and, together with other screening tests, PSA test can point to the need for further investigation.
A single PSA test will provide a snapshot of prostate specific antigen levels in the blood and may indicate a problem immediately if you record particularly high psa numbers. In the majority of cases however, and where a prostate problem may be in its early stages of development, an isolated PSA test result will prove to be inconclusive and a further test will normally be recommended a few weeks later. In fact, if possible PSA testing should be carried out at regular intervals 2 or 3 times each year so that PSA levels can be plotted over a reasonable period of time.
As long as you have a normal PSA score then all is fine, but when your PSA scores begin to rise they must be watched closely. The speed with which PSA scores increase is normally called the 'PSA velocity' and if the rise is gradual and the velocity slow then it is again frequently sufficient simply to watch the situation as a lot of things can effect levels of PSA and apparently rising levels will frequently be seen to return to normal over time.
However, if PSA test levels start rising rapidly and the velocity is fast then further investigation is necessary.
PSA testing and monitoring has been done for some considerable time but, while the test has always been thought of as a good indicator of the need for further investigation, it was not until quite recently that we have been in a position to link specific PSA velocity readings to prostate cancer in a way that can predict the aggressiveness of a cancer.
In a study carried out recently data concerning 950 men with prostate cancer who had undergone either surgery of radiation treatment between 1988 and 2004 at four hospitals was carefully analyzed.
In all cases each patient 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 indicating an aggressive cancer at cellular level, a noticeable increase in PSA velocity in the year before diagnosis or a mix of two or more of these indicators.
This study also looked in detail at the post-treatment outcomes for all of the patients and discovered that a rapidly rising PSA level that jumped by 2 points or more in a year was the clearest indication or the presence of an aggressive cancer.
Up until now we have been able to connect rising PSA test levels with an indication of the possible presence of prostate cancer but have had to guess to some extent about whether or not such a cancer is likely to be aggressive and need correspondingly aggressive treatment.
However, now we can say with relative certainty that when a PSA level rises by 2 or more points in a year then prostate cancer is almost certainly aggressive and needs to be treated speedily and vigorously.
ProstateProblemCenter.com provides information on PSA results and on PSA scores
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