Further examination
If you choose to undergo further examination, your family physician will refer you to your urologist. The urologist will perform or repeat the rectal examination. In addition, an ultrasound study of the prostate should take place to determine the volume of your prostate and the presence or absence of suspicious lesions. The urologist now has sufficient information to determine more accurately your risk to find prostate cancer if you decide to undergo a biopsy, the next step in the evaluation.
Prostate biopsy
The goal of a prostatic biopsy is to obtain tissue for microscopic examination. The biopsy is carried out under visual control with an ultrasound machine through your rectum. You will feel some slight pain during the biopsy procedures. Some urologists will offer local anaesthesia to reduce this discomfort. The urologist determines the number of biopsies to be taken according to the size of your prostate.
Temporary blood in your urine and/or sperm, occasional slight fever, rarely (3-4 of 1,000 patients) the need to be admitted to the hospital because of fever or bleeding.
The majority of men in whom prostate cancer is diagnosed do not die of this disease. How is that possible?
- Prostate cancer often grows slowly and because the disease often occurs in older men death may occur as the result of other diseases.
- Some prostate cancers are so small and grow so slowly that they would never be diagnosed without applying a screening test.
These slow growing cancers are more frequent in older men.
Some of these small cancers can be detected by standard prostate biopsies.
