Marker group

Tumour Markers

Plain-English guides to the tumour markers markers we measure and what your results mean, written to inform the conversation with your practitioner.

Markers in this group

Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA)PSA is a protein made by the prostate, used to help check prostate health. A raised PSA is far more often down to a harmless enlarged prostate, inflammation, or recent activity than to cancer, and it cannot diagnose cancer on its own. Whether to have the test at all, and what a result means for you, are decisions best made together with your GP.

Reading results in this group

a little low

Lower screening marker levels are generally positive. This is reassuring news.

Possible reasons:

This can reflect individual baseline and test variation.

Next steps: Discuss with your GP if you have symptoms or a strong family history.

in range

Your screening marker is in the expected range. Screening markers are most useful when tracked over time, giving a fuller picture.

Possible reasons:

In-range results are common and do not diagnose or exclude disease.

Next steps: No follow-up is usually needed.

a little high

There are many common, non-serious reasons for elevated markers, including inflammation, benign enlargement, or natural changes that occur with age. Elevated markers often don't cause symptoms, which is why screening is valuable.

Screening markers are designed to be sensitive, which means they sometimes flag results that turn out to have benign explanations.

Possible reasons:

This can relate to age, organ size, inflammation, or other non-cancer reasons.

Next steps: Discuss with your GP. They can interpret this in context of your age, symptoms, and health history to determine if any further assessment would be helpful.

Test your tumour markers

NATA-accredited testing. Results in 2–5 days. No GP referral required.

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