What is a PSA test? What does it measure?
PSA stands for prostate-specific antigen, which is a protein made in the prostate that is fairly specific to prostate tissue. The bigger your prostate, the more PSA you make, and the level of it goes up in the blood. So one of the signs or warnings of prostate cancer is that the PSA blood level goes up. But there are other prostate conditions that can cause a raised PSA level in the blood, and that’s when the PSA test may be positive even when the man does not have prostate cancer. What can men hope to learn from PSA results? If your PSA test is really high, like 50 or 100 ng/ml, there is high likelihood you have prostate cancer. It is a very sensitive test. So the number in and of itself can be an indicator of cancer. We then biopsy the prostate to make a diagnosis of cancer. Also, tracking changes in PSA levels from year to year is a very effective way to screen for cancer. Perhaps a man is screened and his PSA is low. A year later it goes up a little bit. A year later it goes up a l
