That is certainly possible.   You really have to discuss this with your
urologist.  He may decide to try an antibiotic and wait to do more PSA
testing or he may suggest doing a biopsy now.  In the latter case, don't
be specially fearful.  Biopsies, if done properly, are safe and need not
be specially painful.  If you do in fact have prostate cancer, you want
to find out now when it is probably curable rather than waiting.

Yes, it could have been wrong.
Yes, it could have been an infection.
Other possibilities (probabilities) is any of a few benign prostate
problems.

You need to have it checked out, of course, but it is likely, and my fervent
hope, that you will not be able to join our group.  Besides, we have enough
Roys.

Roy,

Prostatitis and benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) are both
possible causes of rising PSA.  "Prostatitis" just means
inflammation of the prostate.  It can be caused by infection
or by mineral deposits in the ducts, or possibly by other
causes.  It is not well understood and often not easily
treated - but it's not life threatening and often causes little
or no pain.

As I understand it, BPH is a cancer like growth of prostate
tissue, but it is completely benign in that the growing cells
have no ability to metastasize outside the prostate and
create a life threatening situation.  Its main effect on the
patient can be to put pressure on the urethra and make
urination more difficult and/or more frequent.  There are
treatments that can alleviate those problems if they occur.

If the uro asks you to try a course of antibiotics, I recommend
that you ask him if he will do a urine culture instead.  It is
less invasive (you pee in a bottle and he sends it to a lab
to culture it and count bacteria) and should tell you if you
have a bacterial infection.  More often than not, prostatitis
is NOT caused by infection and you may avoid an
unnecesary course of antibiotics.  If the culture comes
back positive, then treatment is probably a good idea and
may well bring your PSA back down.

Finally, it is believed by many that PSA tests can be
significantly affected by stress on the prostate before the
blood draw.  If you had sex in past 48 hours, and possibly
if you had a DRE (there is some debate about that), your
PSA may have been artificially high just due to that.  That
might well account for your 3.7 followed by 2.9.

Good luck.

   Alan

10/30/2006 Update:

I live in a high growth area under-staffed of medical professionals.
With some polite bugging, I was able to get my first urologist
appointment moved up one week to this morning. The doctor quickly could
tell I had researched the situation and recommended a prostate biopsy,
it is scheduled for 11/28/2006 and I will post the results here then.

Thank you for your responses sharing your experiences and kind
thoughts. I am handling the uncertainty well due largely to my medical
history. At the age of 24, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease and
am a 38-year cancer survivor. If I could lick that with the tools and
knowledge that were available in 1968, I believe whatever the future
holds things will work out and hope things will work out for everyone
in this caring group.

Roy

Follow-Up:

On 11/28/2006 I had a Trans-Rectal Prostate Biopsy. The only problem
was taking a strong antibiotic on an empty stomach. Today 12/01/2006 I
got the results - no cancer. The Urologist asked for a regular PSA and
follow-up in six-months.

I know I am very fortunate and wish everyone here the best.

Roy