What Is A PSA Blood Test

Early detection and treatment of prostate cancer is possible through doing a PSA blood test (prostate-specific antigen) or digital rectal examination.

The prostate is a round cluster of glands located at the bottom of the bladder, about midway between the rectum and the base of the penis. The prostate encircles the urethra, the tube that expels urine from the bladder by way of the penis. The ping pong ball sized gland produces most of the fluid in semen. Contraction of the muscles in the prostate squirt fluid from into the urethra tract during ejaculation. This fluid makes up the majority of the ejaculate and transports and nourishes the sperm.

Prostate cancer is the leading cause of cancer related death for American men who don’t smoke. It is primarily a disease of aging. Men in their thirties and forties rarely develop prostate cancer, but the incidence grow steadily after the age of fifty-five. About 80 percent of all prostate cancer cases occur in men over the age of sixty-five. By the age of eighty, 4 out of 5 men have some degree of prostate cancer. Many experts feel that all men will eventually develop prostate cancer if they live long enough.

The three most common prostate problems are prostatitis or inflection, prostate enlargement, and prostate cancer.

Medical professionals recommend that men have annual rectal exams as part of a health checkup from ages 40 to 70, and those with high risk and all men 50 and over should add a PSA blood test every year as well. When prostate cancer is detected early and treated it has a high cure rate. Men are encouraged to discuss the options with their doctor. Based on past screenings doctors have observed that in men ages 50 to 59, the prostate cancer detection rate was basically the same whether men were screened every year or every two years.

Therefore normal risk men in their 50s can to be safely screened every other year. Since there is no cure for advanced prostate cancer, early diagnosis and treatment are essential. Since early prostate cancer normally doesn’t have any symptoms, it is extremely difficult to detect without testing. Screenings using both PSA and DRE tests have proven to be the best and only reliable method of identifying the disease when it can be still be cured easily. Almost fifty-eight percent of all cases are discovered while the cancer is still isolated and at its most treatable stage. A doctor can detect prostate cancer by digital rectal examination and by a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) blood test.

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