Mourad shares how hesitation around PSA testing delayed his prostate cancer diagnosis for several years. After an elevated PSA and an unsatisfactory care experience, he transferred to UCSD Health, where imaging, biopsy, and PSMA scanning confirmed prostate cancer. He chose radiation and ADT, managed treatment well, and credits exercise, trust in his doctors, and a positive mindset for helping him through recovery.

My name is Mourad Yacoub. I am 70 years old, married, two kids, two grandkids. I'm retired. I worked for the Navy for 42 years. At the time, testing was... There were issues with the results of the PSA tests. The family doctor that I had, so he was basically advising me that, "Hey, it's up to you. So many of my patients don't take the test." And I'm squeamish by nature with anything medical. So I was like, "Well, I'd rather not know anyway."

So if there's some erroneous results that come out of the test that I was not interested in doing that. Because I was young, very active. So why do something that might initiate something that would cause harm later? So I didn't take the PSA test for a long time. It was about five years or so until I just decided, just after COVID, all these things, I just decided last year, "Yeah, why not? Let's take the test."

So it was five years in between the last time I did it. And I had elevated PSA. It was 5.3. So he recommended me to go to see a urologist. The urologist, really his demeanor was not very impressive, was not... Basically just somebody that appeared to me that wanted to just do things without talking to you and explaining things.

I did take the PSA test six months later, and actually it had gone down slightly. So I was kind of like, "Well, it was 5.3, 5.2, and now it's 4.7. So what's the big deal?" And I really was not comfortable with the doctors I was dealing with. I didn't feel confident that I was getting good care. I changed health plans. I changed insurance. I changed to UCSD Health.

I had read about what they do, and I really wanted to go the proper procedure for investigating what type of cancer. If I had any, what type is it and treatments. So I saw Dr. Salmazi at UCSD Health. He decided... His demeanor was very good. He was very friendly, made me feel very comfortable about things. And I felt just confident that I was with the right organization. He prescribed an MRI. Let's go through an MRI procedure, and see what that's like. I did that. There was a RAD4 that he talked to me about that, "Hey, we probably need to do a biopsy to check it out."

And then the biopsy came back with, out of 12 cores, there was three. One was Gleason six and two were Gleason eight. And so he of course said, "You've got options. We can do the PMSA CT scan, and then you meet with the oncology team and the radiation team and all that." The whole process that UCSD goes through. PSMA did show there was a high likelihood of having prostate cancer.

So when I met with the team, Dr. Raina McKay became my medical oncologist, Dr. Rose, I chose the path of radiation and ADT. The side effects, once again, during radiation to me was almost a piece of cake really, compared to a lot of what I had heard and read. I didn't really experience a lot of the side effects of the radiation that people talk about.

I've lost a lot of weight. I continue to maintain an exercise regimen. I do something every day, practically seven days a week. So I'm working on the muscle mass. I'm trying to eat more vegetarian as much as I can, but I am combining that with fish and poultry as much as I can, but not totally vegetarian or vegan or any of that.

And I think a lot of it has to do with your body mass, your exercise, and just an overall emotional health. I have a good support system. I think a lot of it has to do with that because I don't think about these things.

Most of the time, I really don't have a lot of questions to ask. And last time I met with Dr. McKay, basically she made me feel comfortable that I feel that way. So I don't know if I should be feeling different.

I'd say listen to your doctors, have trust in your doctors. Make sure that you feel comfortable with your doctors, to have belief in the advancement in medicine. I have a science background, so I believe in science. So I kind of think that whatever trials you can get into, go ahead and do that. I couldn't do that because I had some demands on my time, and I couldn't commit to it, but that doesn't mean I'm not open to it later.

So I would just say, just have a positive attitude. Just don't react to everything negative that happens to you.