Last reviewed: 13 August 2026
Last reviewed: 13 August 2026
If you are a patient or carer, you may want to visit our public-facing webpages to learn more about the PSA test.
The PSA test is a blood test that measures the amount of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein made by cells in the prostate gland. It’s normal for all people with a prostate - including men, trans women and some non-binary people - to have some PSA in their blood.
A raised PSA may indicate prostate cancer, but can also be caused by other factors such as:
Age
Benign prostate enlargement
Infection (UTI)
Recent ejaculation or exercise
A normal PSA does not exclude cancer and prostate cancer could also be present without increased PSA levels.
Before offering a PSA test to patients, the potential benefits and harms should always be discussed so they can make an informed choice.
Using the PSA test to investigate possible prostate cancer symptoms and suspected prostate cancer referral guidelines.
Information on targeted prostate cancer screening, managing PSA test requests and assessing patients with a family history and inherited risk of prostate cancer.
Before offering a PSA test, it’s important to discuss the potential benefits, risks and limitations with patients so they can make an informed choice.
PSA testing is not routinely recommended for people who do not have symptoms of prostate cancer. To support discussions with people who ask about testing, we've developed a patient guide explaining the benefits, risks and limitations of the test.
Understanding the PSA blood test guideResearch and innovation are ongoing to develop more accurate approaches to diagnosing prostate cancer. Emerging areas include new blood, urine and genetic tests aimed at improving early detection. Current research is exploring:
Screening for prostate cancer using newer diagnostic technology (eg TRANSFORM trial)
How to optimise the PSA test. For example, by combining it with other patient factors or test results like free PSA or PSA volume (eg PROSCREEN, GOTEBORG-2 and ReIMAGINE trials)
The role of risk prediction models, including genetic risk scores to inform how likely a person is to develop prostate cancer (eg TRANSFORM, BARCODE-1 and Stockholm-3 trials)
The use of AI to support current diagnostics
The potential of urinary biomarkers (eg ExoDx and MyProstateScore trials)
To read more about the latest and emerging evidence for prostate cancer and across the pathway, read our cancer news article: “Detecting prostate cancer: why we need more research (April 2025)” or read our Technical summary of earlier detection and diagnosis of prostate cancer(PDF, 578 KB) (May 2026).
NICE. How should I assess a person with suspected prostate cancer. Accessed January 2025.
Thompson IM, Pauler DK, Goodman PJ, et al. Prevalence of prostate cancer among men with a prostate-specific antigen level < or =4.0 ng per milliliter N Engl J Med. 2004.
Merriel SWD, Pocock L, Gilbert E, et al. Systematic review and meta-analysis of the diagnostic accuracy of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) for the detection of prostate cancer in symptomatic patients. BMC medicine. 2022.
Ahmed HU, El-Shater Bosaily A, Brown LC, et al. Diagnostic accuracy of multi-parametric MRI and TRUS biopsy in prostate cancer (PROMIS): a paired validating confirmatory study. Lancet. 2017.
Donovan JL, Hamdy FC, Lane JA, Young GJ, Metcalfe C, Walsh EI, et al. Patient-Reported Outcomes 12 Years after Localized Prostate Cancer Treatment. NEJM Evidence. 2023.
Hamdy FC, Donovan JL, Lane JA, Metcalfe C, Davis M, Turner EL, et al. Fifteen-Year Outcomes after Monitoring, Surgery, or Radiotherapy for Prostate Cancer. N Engl J Med. 2023.
Fanshawe JB, Wai-Shun Chan V, Asif A, et al. Decision Regret in Patients with Localised Prostate Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Eur Urol Oncol. 2023.
