Posted: 02/09/2007--25/11/2008 || Rate this Article: 3 || Views|| Sign In || Register ||Hello Guest
Prostate Cancer kills if allowed to grow. If ever there was a good reason to have a simple blood test, this is it. The Prostate cancer PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) test is one of the tests given to determine if cancer cells are present in an otherwise healthy prostate. It is a simple blood test to help doctors diagnose and identify the existence of prostate cancer.
The PSA test, although considered a prostate specific test is not really an absolute definitive test for the cancer. Depending on the research conducted, the PSA test is known to be somewhere between 85 and 95% accurate in identifying prostate cancer.
While an elevated PSA test may suggest the presence of prostate cancer, it's not an absolute. If however you have an elevated result, your doctor will probably want to do additional testing for a more complete and accurate assessment of the potential cancer. The last thing you want to do is to allow prostate cancer to grow beyond the prostate gland.
The good news is that BPH or Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, better known as an enlarged prostate can also elevate the PSA test results. Even Prostatitis and Lower Urinary Tract symptoms can show elevated levels of PSA so if you have an elevated test result don't panic! A normal result from a PSA test, doesn't guarantee that your free from cancer, nor does a higher than normal result means you do have cancer
It's critical that you follow your doctor's lead in regard to dealing with the Prostate Specific Antigen test results. The results are an indication in a tool only to develop a complete diagnosis. To complicate matters more, PSA levels can also increase with age. Oh and the relative size of your prostate also plays a factor in interpreting the results.
Remember that as many as two out of three people with elevated the PSA readings DO NOT have a malignancy
Here's a quick list of the benefits and reasons why you should consider getting a PSA test
1. It's possible to detect a cancerous condition before any symptoms are known
2. Early detection catches prostate cancer before it is spread increasing the chances of a complete cure
3. The PSA blood test has been recognized as a contributing factor that has significantly reduced the number of prostate cancer death
The PSA test also delivers a false positive, which is a normal PSA level in about 20% of the time. It is still recognized as a good indicator of potential cancerous conditions and should be taken seriously. A 2005 Harvard study indicated that men having an annual PSA test were almost 3 times LESS likely to die of prostate cancer than men who didn't bother with the test. So the best reason to have the test is that without it, you greatly increase the chances of dying from prostate cancer!
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