By Menziwa Msibi

The North-West University’s (NWU’s) Wellness office, in collaboration with the health clinics across its three campuses, recently launched a Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) awareness campaign.

This campaign focused on encouraging male students and staff to know their bodies, teaching them about prostate cancer and how going for a regular PSA test can identify early warning signs.

PSA is a protein produced by the prostate gland and high levels can indicate inflammation of the prostate or cancer.

According to Kagiso Racoco from the School of Nursing, it is very important for men to have regular prostate examinations.

“Problems with the prostate normally occurs in older men, but it can occur in younger individuals too. My advice would be to rather be proactive – the earlier any abnormalities can be detected and treated, the better the outcome,” says Kagiso.

Lee-Ann de Wet, an occupational health practitioner at the NWU’s Potchefstroom Campus, says the PSA test is a blood test that measures the amount of prostate-specific antigen in a person’s blood.

“PSA is a protein produced by both cancerous and noncancerous tissue in the prostate, a small gland that sits below the bladder in males.

“The PSA test can detect high levels of PSA that may indicate the presence of prostate cancer. However, many other conditions, such as an enlarged or inflamed prostate, also can increase PSA levels. Therefore, determining what a high PSA score means can be complicated. The guideline readings for PSA depend on a man’s age and the method of testing used by the laboratory. Therefore, if any abnormal high readings are found, the patient will be referred to his doctor,” she explains.