Importance of Prostate Cancer Exams

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CLEVELAND - September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, which is a good time to remind men about the importance of prostate cancer screenings.

If you’ve never had one before, you may wonder what to expect.

“If the patient agrees to a prostate cancer screening, that can be done very easily through a blood test called PSA, Prostate Specific Antigen, which is an enzyme that is specific to the prostate and that is known to rise in cases of cancer. Like everything in medicine, things are not very simple, and PSA can be elevated for a myriad of reasons besides prostate cancer,” said Gabriel Gavrilescu, MD, internal medicine physician at Cleveland Clinic.

Dr. Gavrilescu said some other reasons a man’s PSA levels are elevated could be due to inflammation of the prostate, or infection of the prostate.

Certain physical activities, like riding a bike, could also play a role.

Typically, when PSA levels are high, Dr. Gavrilescu said they will conduct additional testing, which could include a digital rectal exam, more lab work or imaging.

Based on those results, a biopsy may be performed.

Dr. Gavrilescu notes that the size of a man’s prostate doesn’t always mean something is wrong either.

“I think that one of the common misconceptions is that the size of the prostate does not correlate necessarily with benign or malignancy. We can have a very large prostate and no cancer, and we can have a small prostate and cancer. So, the size does not always matter in terms of assessing something being benign or malignant. It is usually the tissue diagnosis and other clinical elements that suggest one way or another,” he said.

According to the CDC, prostate cancer screenings are recommended for men between the ages of 55 to 69.

However, some men may need to start screenings earlier depending on family history and other risk factors.