PSA test at private lab

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Erik Roger - 19 Aug 2005 02:34 GMT

I recently needed my annual PSA test but balked at the $250 MD Anderson
Cancer Center in Houston charges people who have a high insurance
deductible. The scheduler mentioned Quest Diagnostics as an alternative.
They have two types of services: one where they send the results to the
doctor, you need a prescription for that and the fee is $ 97.

the other one, much better in my opinion, can be found at
http://www.questest.com/ch/minihome/Home.jsp
You don't need a prescription, the cost is $ 45 per PSA test (check or
credit card only, no appointment necessary), and I received the results by
e-mail three days after the test. Because all I want to know is that the PSA
levels are 'not detectable' I did not even send the results to the doctor.
I'll keep the results in a file so that I can track my PSA levels myself.

I thought this is a great alternative and wanted to share this with the
group.

Erik

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Ross (reply to ng, email is fake :-) - 19 Aug 2005 03:09 GMT

I couldn't resist googling and I found a self test kit (spot of blood
from a lancet onto a filter paper) which is slightly less expensive at
http://www.ebiosafe.com/frame.asp?Current_Category=1&Current_Product=16

Before using this test for follow up after Rx, the critical question is
what's the lower limit of detection for their dried blood spot method
compared to the more usual blood draw? It would also be good to know how
precise (ie do you get exactly the same value every time you test a
sample containing a fixed amount of psa) and valid (ie does it report
the same psa value as some gold standard test from the same sample)

(and I have no financial interest in this company!)

> I recently needed my annual PSA test but balked at the $250 MD Anderson
> Cancer Center in Houston charges people who have a high insurance
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>
> Erik

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Steve Kramer - 19 Aug 2005 21:57 GMT

Locally, there is a prostate cancer screening van that take a PSA and does
an DRE for $60 ($72 Canadian/$80 Australian)

Signature

PSA 16 10/17/2000 @ 46
Biopsy 11/01/2000 G7 (3+4), T2c
RRP 12/15/2000 G7 (3+4), T3cN0M0 Neg margins
PSA .1 .1 .1 .27 .37 .75
EBRT 05-07/2002 @ 47
PSA .34 .22 .15 .21 .32
Lupron 07/03 (1 mo) 8/03 (4 mo), 12/03, 4/04, 09/04, 01/05
PSA .07 .05 .06 .05
non Illegitimi carborundum

> I recently needed my annual PSA test but balked at the $250 MD Anderson
> Cancer Center in Houston charges people who have a high insurance
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>
> Erik

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Bill - 23 Aug 2005 14:57 GMT

I checked w/ Quest and FWIW this test is the standard 1-decimal place
test.

Bill Denton
RP 2/12/02
PSA .6
Memphis

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