Patients share how routine PSA testing or unexpected symptoms led to life-changing prostate cancer diagnoses. Their stories emphasize the importance of early detection, understanding PSA results, seeking expert care, and maintaining hope, even when faced with high-risk or advanced disease.
John Burke:
Well, my prostate cancer was diagnosed. I consider myself an extremely healthy guy for my age or even when I was young, I was a healthy guy and I never neglected the... I was always a believer in the yearly physical and I did it yearly, religiously. So I submitted to my regular yearly physical with the look down my throat, look in my ears, things of that nature and a blood test, and I went on my way that day.
And there was a summary sent to my home of my glucose levels, my cholesterol levels, blood pressure and things of that nature, and there was a small note at the bottom that my PSA, which I'd never referred to in my life, I was 54 years old, slightly elevated, and the note said, "Probably not an issue, but something we should keep an eye on. I would like to revisit this in 90 days."
I thought it was like anything else. You recheck it. Not even knowing what PSA level dealt with. I just thought it was just another number. My cholesterol could have been high, they wanted to arrest it before it became an issue. And I waited the 90 days, I made the appointment, simple blood test. And the original number that excited the doctor to have me recheck it was 5.1. After 90 days, it had gone to 5.7.
Once again, the number's meaningless. I just knew that that's what they were and I awaited advice from what was my primary care physician. He immediately saw that and brought me in for a consultation and we discussed what the numbers meant. He said to me that it appeared that I had prostate cancer. And my first question was how did it... We had never even talked about it before. How did it get to where it is be with the interval between my physicals was only a year. So then I asked the question, "Well, if we're concerned about it now at 5.2, what was it last year? What was it last year?" And just like where's Jimmy Hoffa? No, he was never able to answer that question. Never provided me with the information. And so what I concerned myself with, because I concerned myself was where am I now? What is going to happen?
Michael Salvadore, Jr.:
As every man knows, when you're getting an exam from a doctor, it's probably one of the more uncomfortable experiences. And for me, sitting in the doctor's office in your underwear, it's cold, you're on the patient exam table, you're sitting on that paper that crackles and creaks every time you move. My doctor was giving me the results of my exam and my heart rate was good, all my other analysis of your annual physical was good. There were no issues.
And then he said to me, "Your PSA is 66." And I was pretty ignorant then about what PSA meant. And I asked him, "Well, what does that mean?" And he said, "Well, anything over four is likely," and he drops the word bomb, cancer. And at that moment, everything in my body and my mind froze. I couldn't hear. My field of vision narrowed just to his face and his lips as he was speaking. I couldn't hear a word he was saying. I couldn't tell you if my heart was beating, if my blood was pumping, or if I was breathing.
All I could think of was I got a two-year-old daughter, my wife is pregnant with the next one on the way. I just recently have been married and now I have cancer. And it was a surreal moment that is etched into the memory banks of my mind. And I left my appointment with my doctor, as my doctor walked out, he said, "Whatever you need, call me. I'm here for you to help you through." Went out, got in my car, thought for a moment, "What am I going to do?" And I just said, "Forget it. I'm not going down." And I got on my phone, called a friend of mine who had just gone through prostate cancer surgery and he said to me, "Don't worry. It's not the end of the road. Take a deep breath, concentrate on your care." And that was the beginning of my journey.
Steven Daniel:
I was seeing a chiropractor at the time. I was having some pain and the pain kept escalating in my back and my chest. And I'd had an MRI and I'd seen the urologist at Northwestern. And I did have some concerns, which he sort of shrugged off and said it was about my age. And anyhow, so it was a combination of blood work, an MRI that my chiropractor ordered that Northwestern did, and they all arrived on the same day. And the reason I was in so much pain is that my prostate cancer had metastasized to my spine. So it was really a combination of a chiropractor at Northwestern Hospital. It was on a Friday, it was in April, and it was Easter weekend in 2017.
Northwestern immediately put me in the hospital because they were concerned about the strength of my back, that if I fell or if something happened and my back collapsed, they were concerned about that. So I was immediately put in the hospital and ran through a whole nother series of tests, bone scan, CT scan and an MRI all on the same day. The next day they came in and said that your back is fine, it's strong enough to support you. I shouldn't be rollerblading or going snow skiing or anything like that. And that was on a Saturday.
So on Monday morning, the following Monday morning, I woke up and I was getting ready to go to work. And I sat on the edge of my bed and I just thought to myself or said to myself, "Okay, you have cancer and we're going to turn this into an adventure. You've never been to Spain. You've never had cancer. Where is this going to go? What's going to happen? And where will this lead me? What adventure lies ahead with cancer?" And from that moment on, that's kind of how I approached it.
Dr. Michael Holick:
In November of last year, I went to my PCP, hadn't seen him for over a year and a half because of COVID, and he sent me a letter back saying that my PSA was 13 and that you should see your urologist. Well, being at Boston Medical Center and seeing men with prostate cancer, I went to my urologist friend and I said, "I have a PSA of 13." He did an exam. He said that the gland was a little bit enlarged, but it was totally smooth. That most men, they have hyperplasia and that the PSA can be elevated, not to worry, but we definitely should do a biopsy just to be on the safe side. So we did a biopsy. Two weeks later, frantically gives me a call to tell me that seven out of 12 biopsies were positive and that I had a Gleason score of four plus five, which is nine.
Now you would think that if you're a nine or a 10, this is a good thing, right? But not when you have a Gleason score of nine. It's one of the most deadliest forms of prostate cancer and it basically eats you from the inside out.
So then I went immediately, this is now on December 30th, to see my oncologist friend at Boston Medical Center because I had been seeing her prostate and breast cancer patients because bone disease is associated with this hormone deprivation therapy. And so I had been treating patients with breast cancer and prostate cancer for a very long time. And the first word out of her mouth when she saw me was, "Holick, this is curable." Now that was incredibly important to me because for any of you, when you get the diagnosis of prostate cancer, I mean, your whole life flashes in front of you and you realize that, "My gracious, I have so many other things to do and now I have a disease that's likely to limit my existence and I need to do something about it."
She told me that good news because I had a PET scan MRI. MRI showed total involvement of the prostate with extension, but no evidence of lymph node involvement. PET scan was negative so I did not have metastatic bone disease or any evidence in the lymph nodes. So that was the good news.