VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - My biopsy results are in. You may recall, that a few days ago I shared something was discovered in a recent prostate exam. And my doctor, John Liu with Urology of Virginia, recommended a biopsy due to my risk factors. With early detection being critical—I didn't hesitate.
To get the results, this had to happen first---a biopsy involving what's called, a trans-rectal ultrasound. Dr. Liu lets me know, "This part is the part we can't completely numb up for you, feels like a big fat finger going in there. And now we're going to take some pictures of the prostate and inject a numbing medication in there.
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Early Detection: News 3's Kurt Williams got a biopsy after a prostate exam
This all follows something discovered by Dr. Liu a few weeks ago. It wasn't from my prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, blood test, which helps detect prostate cancer. For my age group---my score was normal, but during that checkup, Dr. Liu did feel something when he did a physical exam of my prostate, an area that just didn't feel right. So during the ultrasound, I asked him was it showing up? "No, I haven't been able to see it clearly on the ultrasound." He then told me, that doesn't necessarily mean anything, "Well about a third of prostate cancer will show up on ultrasound as a darkened area. but a majority of prostate cancer you don't see very clearly on ultrasound."
WATCH: Kurt Williams hosts live conversation with viewers to discuss prostate cancer diagnosis
And now it's time to start taking some samples, "I'll have real-time picture the entire time, so the picture allows me to know where the needle's going to...the clicking sound is the needle gun firing. Here's the first click— hold still. Each click sound is a little firing of the needle and getting a little sliver of the prostate."
So, let's talk about my risk factors. I'm an African-American male and there's a disproportionate rate of African-American men getting prostate cancer, and I have a family history; my father was treated for prostate cancer.
According to the National Institutes of Health, African-American men have a 60% higher rate of getting prostate cancer than white men, that's the highest rate for it in the US. Researchers say there are a number of possible reasons, including a genetic component and diet.
Watch previous coverage: Early Detection: News 3's Kurt Williams got a biopsy after a prostate exam
After a few days, I head back to Dr. Liu to talk about the results, "Well Kurt, unfortunately, we did find— you know a few areas of prostate cancer."
Out of the 13 samples, four showed traces of cancer—and of those four, two stood out to Dr. Liu, "There's a couple of areas on the biopsy that was intermediate grade and there's one high-grade prostate cancer."
I asked is there any way of knowing now, whether the cancer has been confined to my prostate? "No way to know with absolute certainty; based on your PSA being relatively low, the risk of extraprostatic or metastatic disease is very low, but we are going to get some imaging study, to do what we call a staging imaging study to make sure. We'll usually start by doing a CT scan of your abdomen and pelvis where we'll get a good look at all the lymph nodes and then also a bone scan."
Once doctors know for sure it hasn't spread outside the prostate, then I can consider my treatment options. one involves using a surgical robot to remove the prostate. Dr. Liu adds, "And then also radiation is also an equally effective way of treating the prostate cancer. There's different ways of doing the radiation. You can have what's called brachytherapy, which is putting in radioactive pellets into the prostate and delivers radiation directly to the prostate."
There's also Hampton University's Proton Therapy Center, which delivers a very focused beam of radiation to the targeted area. In the days to come, I'll be having consultations to weigh my options.
But to me already, a huge takeaway is the fact my PSA isn't what triggered all of this. Not only was it in the normal range, my most recent score was lower than my previous one. It was the actual physical exam Dr. Liu did on my prostate, known as the digital rectal exam. "What we're looking for when we're doing the digital rectal exam, is the contour of the prostate."
What did he feel on mine? "We felt an area that felt more firm and more irregular than the rest of the prostate. There are some small portion of patients that have a completely normal PSA and the cancer's picked up simply due to just an abnormal digital rectal examination which was in your case."
So if not for the physical exam, "Right—- if we just went by PSA alone we would've potentially sat on this much longer than we should've."
Think about that—if not for Dr. Liu insisting he do a physical exam, I'd be walking around with cancer right now and not even know it.
Once I choose a treatment option, I'll continue to share this journey with you every step of the way.
To see the full conversation with my doctor about my biopsy results, click the video below:
