Prostate cancer early
detection/screening

Screening
Tests and exams used to find a disease, such as cancer, in people who do not have any symptoms


Early detection
Using an approach that lets ovarian cancer get diagnosed earlier than otherwise might have occurred.

Prostate cancer can often be found early:
By testing the amount of PSA (prostate-specific antigen) in the blood

Another way prostate cancer is found early is when the doctor does a digital rectal exam (DRE)

If prostate cancer is found as a result of either one of these tests, it has probably been found at an early, more treatable stage.

PSA blood test

PSA (prostate-specific antigen) is a substance made by the prostate gland

Although PSA is mostly found in semen, a small amount is also found in the blood

Most healthy men have levels under 4 ng/mL (nanograms per milliliter) of blood

The chance of having prostate cancer goes up as the PSA level goes up

If your level is between 4 and 10, you have about a 1 in 4 chance of having prostate cancer

If it is above 10, your chance is over 50%

But some men with a PSA below 4 can also have prostate cancer

During DRE, the doctor puts a gloved, lubricated finger into the rectum to feel for any bumps or hard areas on the prostate that might be cancer

The prostate gland is next to the rectum, and most cancers begin in the part of the gland that can be felt by rectal exam

The exam is usually is not painful and takes only a short time

The DRE is less effective than the PSA blood test in finding prostate cancer, but it can sometimes find cancers in men with normal PSA levels

Hence, it may be done as a part of prostate cancer screening

The DRE is also used once a man is known to have prostate cancer. It can help tell whether the cancer has spread beyond his prostate gland

It can also be used to find cancer that has come back after treatment

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