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Detection

What is early detection?

Number 3:

Detection of prostate cancer. Early detection means that you find the tumor before it has spread to other sites in your body. Late detection means that you find the tumor after it has already spread to other parts of the body. What are the methods of early detection of prostate cancer?

There are no early warning symptoms for prostate cancer. However, your doctor has two screening exams that can find prostate cancer in its early stages. One is a Digital Rectal Examination, which we will call DRE, and the other is a blood test that measures Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) levels.

Your prostate gland sits right in front of your rectum, so the doctor can feel it easily. During the DRE, the physician places a gloved finger into your rectum and feels for any hard lumps on the back and side of your prostate gland.

The rectal exam does not detect all tumors. Therefore, you should also have a blood test. The screening test measures Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) levels in the blood. If the PSA level is high you may have prostate cancer or some other serious health issue. Lower levels mean you do not necessarily have prostate cancer. Prostate cells normally release small amounts of this material into your blood. When cancer develops, you have more cells producing PSA, and this causes your PSA level to increase. Other conditions will create the same elevation of PSA levels. The blood test alone does not detect all tumors either. Having both the rectal exam and the blood test gives you the best information.