Thanks Alan.
Since writing that part of my blog I have been given more information. My PSA at the time of my TURPS was found to be only 2, so as a consequence no biopsy was done. It seems that the material removed during a TURPS is from the central part of the prostate, whereas the cancerous cells tend to be on the outside, thus making a biopsy irrelevant. I may well already have had the tumour, and it was incorrectly diagnosed as benign enlargement, as the PSA level is only an indicator and not a totally reliable test. We will never know and I certainly don't hold any grudges. My point really was to make people aware of these issues so that they can spot the warning signs.
Quote Originally Posted by jackson.alan46 View Post
Thanks for updating us with your good news. You should not torment yourself with the thought, as expressed in your blog, that "it's pretty obvious that cancer was already there and was missed" - it may have been there but was almost certainly not missed by the pathologist, a doctor whose skill it is to examine the excised tissue under the microscope. It's more likely that it was genuinely not present in the original prostate tissue removed. Secondly, as you say, a PSA of 20 indicated "possible prostatic cancer". PSA means prostate specific anntigen, not a specific prostate cancer marker.