They have cancer on both sides of their family. Most families do. But, when Mark finds himself getting up in the middle night it starts a diagnosis that includes PSA (Prostate Specific Antigens) tests and a series of biopsies and lab tests.

Mark:



My name is Mark, and I'm 54 years old. I'm married, and I've been married 32 years.



Julie:



I'm Julie, and I'm Mark's wife. There's cancer on both sides of our family. His father had colon cancer and my grandmother had both breast and colon cancer, and lived to be ninety-nine by the way. It's hard not to have cancer touch your life in some way.



Text:



One in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer.



Mark:



This probably started, as I'm sure it does with many men, with getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.



Julie:



I was certainly aware that he was having to get up. it didn't register with me that that might be something very serious.



Mark:



As I got older and older, I started monitoring the PSAs and asking my internist to do that. In the last year, it has been trending up.



Julie:



When the PSA went up, that registered with me. So I insisted that we really stay on top of that.



Text:



Usually, the higher the PSA, the more aggressive the disease.



Mark:



When one of the PSAs came back and was just slightly higher, she was insistent that I go back and have another one in just three or four months. Which I did--I've learned to do that over the last 32 years. My father had prostate problems but back at that time they were not doing PSAs, but I've often wondered whether he didn't have something and it was just not ever diagnosed.



Text:



If your father had prostate cancer, you have twice the risk.