PSA

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Your doctor will think about the following factors when deciding on the next step:

• Your age
• If you had a PSA test in the past and how much and how fast your PSA levels have changed
• If your doctor finds a prostate lump during your exam
• Other symptoms you may have
• Other risk factors for prostate cancer, such as race and family history

People at higher risk may need to have more tests. Next steps your doctor may take include:

• Repeating your PSA test, most often sometime within 3 months
• Doing a prostate biopsy so samples of prostate can be viewed under a microscope
• Do a follow-up test called a free PSA (fPSA). The lower the level of this test, the more likely it is that prostate cancer is present.

For someone who has been treated for prostate cancer, the PSA level can show if a treatment is working or if the cancer has come back. Often, PSA levels will begin to rise before there are any symptoms, sometimes months or years beforehand.

Review Date: 09/23/2010
Reviewed By: Scott Miller, MD, Urologist in private practice in Atlanta, Georgia. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org).

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