The Prostate Cancer Risk Calculator has been designed to help you, and the health professionals looking after you. There are eight different calculators and the first two are designed for individual use without any medical knowledge.
You can first assess your general risk by using Risk Calculator 1 (no PSA result available) which takes into account your age, family history and urinary symptoms.
What is PSA and why is it important?
You may already have had a simple test to measure the level of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in your blood. The chance of having prostate cancer goes up as the level increases. Once you know your PSA level, you can then use Risk Calculator 2 (using your PSA result). It will help you make a more informed decision about whether it would be wise to undergo further tests.
Even if your PSA is higher than normal, it does not mean you have prostate cancer, because other diseases of the prostate may increase its level. It is important to know that some cancers are slow growing, cause minimal symptoms and are not life threatening.
When you have this information, you may want to discuss the findings with your doctor. This may lead to being referred for more specialist testing and risk calculators 3, 4, 5 and 6 are for use by your urologist at different stages of the testing process.