MYTH: All prostate cancers require treatment.
REALITY: Some prostate cancers are slow-growing and do not require treatment. Active surveillance to monitor progression over time may be your doctor’s preferred course. Prostate MRI can often distinguish between aggressive cancers and insignificant ones that are not life-threatening — and can be used over time to monitor the prostate.
MYTH: The PSA test is inaccurate and can cause more harm than good.
REALITY: The PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test may be an important first step in identifying cancer. An elevated PSA doesn’t necessarily mean you have cancer — it can also signal an enlarged prostate or infection, which is exactly why understanding the cause matters.
MYTH: If your PSA is over 3 ng/ml, you should have a prostate biopsy.
REALITY: Increasingly, research supports prostate MRI before biopsy. Between 20–25% of non-MRI-guided biopsies miss prostate cancer, and using MRI first can reduce unnecessary biopsies by one-third while better targeting the ones that are needed.
The bottom line: modern screening is about precision. RMI’s Flint (Lennon Road) and Novi locations are ACR Designated Prostate Cancer MRI Centers, and Dr. Michael J. Hicks personally reads every prostate MRI we perform.