About to be diagnosed

I had a biopsy about 4 years ago when my psa was 7 it is now 13 so they sent me foe an mri and nothing showed up but because the psa is 13 the specialist wants to do a biopdy which i don;t want to have but have one on 25th may

I agree with most of what you've been told in here.

1. The MRI is most likely not a full body scan but a scan of the prostate alone to see if there is any suspicious areas which may be cancer. They may also not be cancer;

2. My MRI did not include an endorectal coil and if you can find a facility where such a coil is not used and the radiologist is highly skilled in reading prostate scans, then go for it. Very skilled radiologists can obtain pictures without a coil which are as good as using a coil and a coil is very, very uncomfortable:

3. A MRI makes a lot of sense ahead of a biopsy for one fundamental reason: if anything is supsicous on the MRI then the biopsy can be a "MR guided ultrasound biopsy " where the needles are guided by the MRI to target the tumors perfectly, rather than the standard biopsy where a dozen or so needles are fired to determine if there is cancer in the organ;

4. Don't forget in some cases the biopsy is performed under general anaesthesia; and

5. Until a biopsy confirms or denies the presence of PCa, we are guessing. After all, getting up at night to pee could be symptomatic of an infection. And a PSA rising 50%, in how long a period? Isn't definitive.

in short I wouldn't stress if I were you. There is nothing to gain by doing that. At this point I would look forward to the MRI and be sure to book only a MR guided biopsy. There is a lot in the literature that supports the claim that such a biopsy is the better type.

good luck to your brother.

australia seems so far behind there is a urine test pac3 which just looks ar cancer cells in the prostate but they stoped doing it last september the results of the tests can make a biopsy not neeeded but mrdicare stoped doing it last september so the only othrt thing is a biopsy where the psa shows infection or enlargement of the prostate the pca3 test looks for cancer and in most cases avoids   having to have a biopsy but good old aussie dont do it anymore the only way to have it is to send the jrinr to thr usa

Coco. I had two MRIs recently. It's good to know his doctor sends him for an MRI first at his psa level. He needs to request a DCE MRI with and without contrast and make sure the place where he gets this MRI done must have a 3T machine. A regular MRI w/o contrast does not do much for review, same as a 1.5T machine. Why not Biopsi first? Agree that Biopsi is the only sure to know if one has it. However, one Biopsi may miss the area of interest, so the MRI may pintpoint the location of suspecious for the second biopsi (or targeted biopsi). But if the first result from a good MRI like I mentioned above does not reveal any irregular, his doctor may have him on the watch for next psa testing. In this case he does not have to go thru a biopsi that he may not need it.

To summarize if one needs a MRI:

1. A DCE MRI with & without contrast, and

2. 3T Machine (search the web if one does not know the diff between 1.5T & 3T).