Several years ago my father was diagonosed with prostate cancer with a PSA level of 28. With medication the medical people got it down to 9. At the present time, my father is 85 in a nursing home. This week the family requested another PSA count. The results came back today from the lab and it was 495. What does this mean for our father. Thank You
Hi, Thanks for writing in.PSA is prostate specific antigen. It is a substance that is secreted in larger amounts should a patient have cancer of prostate. It can also be secreted in conditions like infections of the prostate gland in elderly men. A single PSA level is not very reliable but follow-up levels are important. As your father has regularly got PSA analysis done therefore it will help to know the duration between the tests. The normal level of PSA in less than 4. However, 495 appears to be a highly inflated figure, and it will help to know if his test is erroneously showing high levels or if he has an infection or active disease leading to this value. If required the pleasing repeat the test once again. Please do not worry.