There has been a recent debate amongst medical researchers all around the world over if prostate specific antigen is a reliable indicator of prostate cancer in men.

If yes, then what is the level of PSA that sets off the alarm for caution.

Firstly some contend that PSA level might be high in perfectly normal men so it can't indicate cancer. Some say if PSA value gets higher than 2.5 nanograms per ml, a biopsy is needed to detect prostate cancer, while others strongly advocate for the level to be 4ng/mL.

Older men don't run a high risk of prostate cancer and neither is prostate an aggressive form of cancer.

In the research it was found that if biopsy done at 4ng/mL, the risk of cancer went up only in one case as against biopsy done at 2ng/mL In fact an unnecessary biopsy done at 2ng/mL would subject 73% men to over-diagnosis and excessively aggressive treatments.

So the researchers inferred that early detection of cancer that is at 2ng/mL proves more harmful than actually being beneficial.