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Analyzing the Free PSA Test
What an alternate PSA blood test may tell your doctor about your prostate.
Brian Diedalis got the news about his PSA test over the phone.|
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"I really didn't expect it. I had no symptoms. But my PSA blood test results had jumped from 2.65 to 4.27 and my doctor wanted to run another type of PSA exam. What he called a free PSA test or something. When I asked if I should be worried, his reply was 'Not Yet', which honestly didn't make me feel any better." Diedalis continued, "Turns out some tests measure what's called free PSA. Or the amount of the prostate specific antigen that floats around in your blood. The more the better. So that a free PSA reading of 25% or above is generally a good sign that you don't have prostate cancer. My doctor wanted to do the second type then to see if my elevated PSA was something that merited further testing or not." "My take was that this was simply a refinement of the standard PSA testing." |
Brian's right. Doing this type of test when compared with your total PSA level, can help your doctor decide if a biopsy is needed.
Did You Know? If a man's PSA level comes back between 4 and 10, there is just a 25% chance he has cancer.
In this case, Brian's doctor was trying to avoid an unneeded biopsy if possible. Even though his PSA blood test results had jumped over the 4 threshold that typically signals a biopsy is called for.
Anyway, the free PSA test is simply done to increase the sensitivity and accuracy of standard PSA testing. If that number comes back higher than 25% there's no need to worry. Less than 10 is not good. While 10-25% is the gray area for this test.
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