PSA OFTEN INFECTION

Report #6895 8/14/96

Doctors order a blood test called prostate specific antigen or PSA to screen men for prostate cancer, but the most common cause of an elevated PSA is an infection in the prostate.

Prostate Specific Antigen is made by prostate cells and released into the bloodstream. So the larger your prostate, the more cells you have to release PSA into your bloodstream. Therefore, PSA is a measure of the size of the prostate gland, rather than just prostate cancer. A sudden rise in PSA means that the gland is enlarging rapidly which can be a sign of cancer. Many men have a high PSAs because they have a benign enlargement of their prostates, called benign prostatic hypertrophy. PSA blood levels are usually raised by infections because anything that irritates the prostate will cause its cells to release PSA into the bloodstream. If you have an elevated PSA, burning on urination or terrible discomfort when your bladder is full, the odds are overwhelming that you have prostatitis, which can be very difficult to cure. Your doctor can order a semen culture and treat the germ that grows. However, a negative culture does not rule out prostatitis. The treatment for one germ called enterococcus can be multiple injections of massive doses of a long-acting penicillin or for other infections, many months of oral antibiotics. Many cases of prostatitis are caused by a venereal disease called mycoplasma which is treated by both partners taking Zithromax or Biaxin for a couple of weeks.

By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News