Bengaluru: This businessman and his family from Bengaluru were shellshocked and almost counting the days after seeing the reports which stated he was suffering from Cancer and that his days were countable.
A 68-year-old businessman N K Dhar had been to a diagnostic centre in Indiranagar and had gone for a routine checkup, along with kidney and liver function tests on August 24. He also decided to get a Prostate Specific Antigen(PSA) test which is primarily used to screen for prostate cancer.
Dhar never expected the results of PSA test to be positive one. “My PSA was much higher than the normal PSA total (14.04), the reference range is 4.0. All the other reports indicated normal levels. I rushed to my family doctor that same day and he said that a higher PSA could mean I was at a very high risk of advance stage of prostate cancer. He immediately asked to me go to an urologist for further investigations,” Bangalore Mirror quoted him saying.
His wife, children and relatives too were shocked to see the reports. “I told my friends and relatives about the diagnosis and they were extremely concerned and asked me to start treatment immediately. I have read about the symptoms and I was left wondering how I could have developed such a deadly cancer without any of them. For the next For the next couple of days I had relatives and friends coming to my house to console me; giving me suggestions on the next course of action; and on the options of surgery coupled with a lot of sympathy calls. I could not sleep at night. Everything went haywire and the whole environment was filled with tension and stress. Meanwhile, my family doctor referred me to an urologist at a private hospital.” he added.
However, Dhar kept him strong for his family and decided to confirm the diagnosis. He went for a re-test and everything was normal. “I spoke with my family doctor once again and he asked me to get the test done again. I decided to give this one more shot and I went for a re-test two days ago at a private hospital and at another diagnostic centre, the results of which came in on Monday. My PSA was well within the normal limit [0.98 ng/ml] which indicated that I had no risk of cancer. It was such a relief, not only for me, but for my friends and family as well.”
Dhar on Tuesday, went to the diagnostic centre which had given wrong report and inquired about there could be mistake from their side. But there was no answer from them.
Bangalore Mirror, quoted Dr Manohar T, a urologist, Columbia Asia Hospital, saying “It clearly looks like a laboratory error. PSA is a very sensitive laboratory index test. A high PSA could indicate prostate cancer, but it can also indicate other conditions like prostatitis or an enlarged prostate. Even though it might show a fluctuation, it cannot show such a big variation in a span of four to five days. So if his other conditions were normal it is a high possibility that his reports could have been mixed with someone else’s. In most such cases we often ask the patient to get a test for a second time.”
