With prostate cancer being the second leading cause of death in men and the second most common cancer in men, it is vitally important for men to know their PSA number.
Your prostate makes this PSA all the time, so a small amount of the protein (usually resulting in a reading of less than 4 ng/mL) is normal.
An enlarged or inflamed prostate, which is common in men over age 50, can also give a slight boost to PSA readings.
And some men with prostate cancer have perfectly normal PSA readings.
According to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, 15 percent of a group of 2,950 men with normal PSA levels were found to have prostate cancer.