About 10 days ago I got a telephone call from my GP saying that my routine PSA test (I'm 61 and hadn't had one for about 5 years) had come back with an abnormal score of 10. He said that the local NHS services were very good about investigating these things quickly. He was right, within a week I had had an MRI, a follow up blood test and a meeting with a consultant urologist.
At that meeting he said that the MRI report has come back saying it showed nothing suspicious, that my prostate was not enlarged, and my second PSA test was 8.4. He said there were two options 1) to monitor the PSA with regular tests or 2) have a biopsy. He said both of these were appropriate in my circumstances and I could choose. Being naturally cautious, but at the same time very pleased that the MRI was clear, I decided to go for the biopsy. This has been scheduled for our return from holiday in about 4 weeks.
Yesterday I received a copy of the letter from the consultant to my GP referring to my meeting with him. In this letter he for the first time referred to a very high PSAD (0.37) and that given this a biopsy was the best way forward and that I had agreed. This was not a conversation I had had with him and our initial sense of relief at the outcome of the MRI and PSA test has now been replaced by a lot more worry (We had never heard of PSAD before now). I have done some reading on high PSAD and it seems that high PSA combined with non-enlarged Prostate has a high risk of cancer.
My initial feeling of being impressed with the NHS cancer fast track system has been somewhat undermined by the mixed messages I have received.
This has all of course come as something of a shock.
Am I reading the PSAD score right?
Edited by member 20 Feb 2023 at 13:35
| Reason: Typo