NewsAwareness
Prostate Cancer Awareness Month: Understanding a Common — and Often Slow-Growing — Cancer
Each September, Prostate Cancer Awareness Month encourages men to learn about a common cancer and to have an informed conversation about screening. Here is what NCI says.
A plain-language summary based on public reporting and trusted sources, linked below.
Please note: this page is educational only — it is not medical advice, and it does not speculate about anyone’s health beyond reliable public reporting. For questions about your own health, talk with your healthcare team.
Why this awareness month sounds different
Most awareness campaigns push a single message: get tested. September's does not, and the reason is worth understanding.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in the United States and the second leading cause of cancer death among them. But NCI also states that prostate cancer usually grows very slowly, and that finding and treating it before symptoms appear may not improve men's health or help them live longer.
Both sentences are true at once. That is the whole difficulty.
What PSA actually measures
Prostate-specific antigen is a protein made by prostate cells, normal ones as well as cancerous ones. The blood test measures how much is circulating.
Several things other than cancer raise it. NCI names benign prostatic hyperplasia, an enlarged prostate that is not cancer, and prostatitis, inflammation of the gland. An infection or a recent prostate biopsy can keep levels raised for a month or two. Vigorous exercise such as cycling, and ejaculation, raise it briefly, which is why NCI advises avoiding those for two days before a test.
Some drugs push it the other way. Finasteride and dutasteride, used for an enlarged prostate, lower PSA, so a lower cutoff is applied to men taking them.
The number everyone wants, and why it does not exist
There is no single PSA threshold that separates normal from abnormal. NCI says so directly. There is no level that means cancer is present, though the higher the level, the likelier cancer becomes.
In general a PSA above 4.0 nanograms per milliliter is treated as abnormal and may prompt a biopsy. Some doctors use a higher cutoff for older men, around 5, and a lower one for younger men, around 2.5, because PSA rises with age.
That is a judgment call dressed as a number. Our page on the PSA test works through what different results tend to mean.
What the guidelines say
The US Preventive Services Task Force splits its advice by age.
For men aged 55 to 69 it gives a grade C: the decision should be an individual one, made after discussing benefits and harms with a clinician. The task force is blunt about both sides. Screening offers a small potential benefit in reducing prostate cancer death for some men. Many men will experience harms, including false positives that lead to further testing and biopsy, overdiagnosis and overtreatment, and treatment complications such as incontinence and erectile dysfunction. It adds that clinicians should not screen men who do not express a preference for it.
For men 70 and older it gives a grade D: it recommends against PSA-based screening.
NCI notes that some organizations do recommend routine PSA testing starting at 40 or 45 for men at higher risk. That group includes Black men, men with inherited BRCA2 variants and to a lesser extent BRCA1, and men whose father or brother had prostate cancer.
What happens after a raised result
An abnormal PSA is not a diagnosis, and the next step is usually to slow down rather than speed up.
NCI describes the sequence. A doctor may repeat the PSA in six to eight weeks to confirm it. If it stays raised, the option is continued observation with repeat tests and digital rectal exams, watching for change over time.
If the level keeps rising, especially quickly, or if a rectal exam finds a lump, further tests follow. These can include other blood or urine tests, MRI, or high-resolution micro-ultrasound. A biopsy may be recommended, taking multiple tissue samples with hollow needles, either through the rectal wall or through the perineum.
When to get checked
NCI describes the PSA test as also being used to follow up on symptoms. The ones it names are painful or frequent urination, blood in the urine or semen, and pelvic or back pain.
Prostate symptoms overlap almost completely with benign prostatic hyperplasia, which becomes common with age. Trouble starting the stream, a weak or stop-start flow, getting up repeatedly at night, and the sense of not emptying fully are all far more often an enlarged prostate than a cancer. Only testing tells them apart, which is an argument for going, not for staying home. Our page on prostate cancer symptoms covers each one.
The signs that should not wait are blood in the urine or semen, and new persistent back, hip or pelvic pain.
The numbers behind the caution
For 2026 the American Cancer Society projects 333,830 new US prostate cancer cases and 36,320 deaths. Median age at diagnosis is 68.
Five-year relative survival for 2016 to 2022 cases is 98.2 percent overall. By spread at diagnosis it is 100.0 percent while confined to the prostate, 100.0 percent with regional lymph nodes involved, and 40.1 percent once the cancer has reached distant sites. Sixty-nine percent are found localized; 9 percent are distant.
Those first two figures are the reason the screening debate exists. A disease this survivable when caught early is also a disease where many men would have died with it rather than of it. The gap to 40.1 percent is where the argument for finding it lives. Our page on prostate cancer sets out how the stages differ.
Registry averages describe a population, not a person, and prostate cancer varies enormously in how aggressive it is.
What this does not mean
It does not mean PSA testing is useless. It means the benefit is real but modest, and the harms are also real.
It does not mean an awareness month is a reason to test. The task force explicitly says clinicians should not screen men who have no preference for it.
It does not settle anything for men at higher risk. The USPSTF recommendation applies to the general population and to those at higher risk by race or family history alike, while other organizations advise earlier testing for those groups. Reasonable bodies disagree.
And nothing here fits one person. Age, family history, ethnicity, other health conditions and personal values all shift the balance, which is why the recommendation is a conversation rather than a rule.
Sources
- NCI, Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) Test fact sheet — https://www.cancer.gov/types/prostate/psa-fact-sheet
- NCI, Prostate Cancer — Patient Version — https://www.cancer.gov/types/prostate
- US Preventive Services Task Force, Prostate Cancer: Screening — https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/prostate-cancer-screening
- SEER Cancer Stat Facts, Prostate Cancer — https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/prost.html
How this article was prepared
An AI-assisted editorial system helped prepare this page. No named medical reviewer has reviewed it unless one is listed.
The National Cancer Information Foundation publishes Cancer Explained. This page is for learning. It is not medical advice and does not suggest a test or treatment.
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Put the story in context
Prevention, possible warning signs, screening, and diagnosis
This story relates to Prostate cancer & screening. The information below is general: it does not reveal anything else about a public person’s health, and not every point applies to every cancer. Personal advice depends on age, symptoms, family history, exposures, and medical history.
Prevention and risk reduction
Not every cancer can be prevented. Avoiding tobacco, protecting skin from ultraviolet radiation, limiting alcohol, staying active, and receiving recommended HPV or hepatitis B vaccination can lower the risk of certain cancers. A risk factor is not a prediction or a cause in one individual.
Symptoms and possible early signs
Possible signs vary and are often caused by conditions other than cancer. Changes worth discussing include a new lump, unexplained bleeding or weight loss, a persistent cough, lasting bowel or bladder changes, a changing skin spot, or symptoms that persist or worsen. Some early cancers cause no symptoms.
Screening and early detection
Screening looks for certain cancers before symptoms begin. Recommended tests exist only for some cancers and depend on age and risk. Screening can have benefits and harms; it is not the same as evaluating a new symptom, and there is no single routine scan or blood test that reliably screens for every cancer.
How cancer is diagnosed
Diagnosis may involve a history and exam, imaging, laboratory tests, and often a biopsy. Pathology can identify the cancer type and may test biomarkers that guide treatment. Symptoms, screening results, tumor markers, or online stories alone cannot confirm cancer.
Learn about this story’s cancer topic
A public story may encourage questions, but it should not be used to estimate your risk or choose testing. Contact a healthcare professional about a persistent or concerning change. Seek urgent care for severe or rapidly worsening symptoms.