12 Things You Don’t Know About PSA

12 things you don’t know about PSA

1. PSA stands for Prostate Specific Antigen – but it is far from prostate specific. (many of my patients think PSA stands for Patient Stimulated Anxiety) [ I chuckle]

 
2. PSA is produced in women with breast cancer too. (Mashkoor et al. 2013)
3. PSA is a very poor predictor of prostate cancer.
4. PSA is likely more helpful after prostate cancer treatment where a rise (after treatment) may indicate cancer relapse
5. The discoverer of the PSA test, Dr. Richard J. Ablin has been quoted in saying; the “P.S.A. testing can’t detect prostate cancer” on this New York Times article
6. Experiencing the emotion of worry prior to PSA blood draw may elevate PSA score (Cohen et al. 2003).
7. Fat men may have a low PSA and still have bad prostate cancer. In other words, excess weight (or maybe fat) can falsely lower PSA. (Culp & Porter; 2009)
8. Cycling can cause a increase of PSA by close to 10%. (Mejak et al. 2013)
9. PSA molecules are found 1 million times more in semen than in blood
10. Women also put out PSA after orgasms in their ejaculatory fluid. (Wimpissinger et al. 2007)
11.Medications such as statins (i.e. Lipitor), Thiazides diuretics (i.e. Hydrocholorthiazide) and NSAIDS (i.e. aspirin) lowers PSA (Chang et al. 2010)
12. The PSA test costs  tax payers $3 billion a year based on medicare payments. Per test, PSA costs about $100.