Your Daily Health Tips

No. Another cause for PSA elevation is a prostate disease called benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) or enlarged prostate. BPH is the most common prostate disease in men and is present in half of men age 60 or older. BPH, not cancer, is the reason men have difficulty with urination such as a weak, slow urine stream because the urethra tube is squeezed by the enlarged prostate. Inflammation of the prostate, called prostatitis can also cause PSA elevation above normal.

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No. A lot of people think this, but this is not correct. Prostate cancer can spread to other parts of the body; thus, prostate cancer cells any place in a man’s body produce PSA whether they are located in bone, lung, prostate, lymph nodes or any other area. A prostate cancer cell in a man’s left shoulder makes the same amount of PSA as one in his prostate. Thus, a PSA test checks for prostate cancer throughout a man’s body, but PSA gives no information about where the cancer cells are located.

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Unfortunately, no. Some prostate cancers make very little PSA and are called low-PSA producing cancers. Often, these are men with high Gleason scores indicating more aggressive cancers. Low-PSA producing cancers can be advanced and fool doctors. We discover low-PSA producing cancers based on digital rectal examination through palpation of a cancer. Additionally, these cancers can be discovered by measuring PSA velocity. Even though a man’s PSA may be within normal limits, if the PSA is progressively rising, for example 0.5 ng/ml to 1.0 ng/ml to 1.8 ng/ml in less than a year, this rise should alert doctors to the possibility of prostate cancer.

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