What conditions other than cancer cause the PSA level to rise?
The prostate typically enlarges as men grow older, and because small amounts of PSA are produced by the healthy prostate, its blood level tends to rise. Benign prostate enlargement (a condition which causes urinary symptoms such as poor flow, getting up at night), is a common non-cancer condition causing PSA levels to rise. For this reason, age-based thresholds, shown in Table 1, can be used to decide if a test result is abnormal. The percentage Free to Total PSA (described below) also gives an indication whether raised PSA is due to benign enlargement. A temporary rise in the PSA can be caused by a number of conditions ยน. Urinary infection, prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate), or a biopsy of the prostate can cause large rises while small rises can be caused by ejaculation and even bicycle riding. Because of these non-cancer causes of PSA rises, it is not surprising that if you have an abnormally high test result, it may not be due to prostate cancer. The chance that you have pr
