Full biomarker guide
This blood test panel bundles PSA and supporting markers to add context for prostate screening and related male health patterns across results.
This is a lab panel, meaning you get multiple results from one blood draw. The goal is not to “diagnose cancer” from a single number, but to give you a clearer screening picture by pairing prostate-related markers (like PSA) with supporting labs that help explain why a result might look borderline, change over time, or not match how you feel.
Do I need this panel?
You might consider this lab panel if you are making a proactive plan for prostate screening and you want more context than a standalone PSA result. That includes men with a family history of prostate cancer, men who have had a prior borderline PSA, or anyone who wants a baseline to compare against future tests.
This panel can also be useful if you have urinary symptoms (like increased frequency, weak stream, or waking at night to urinate) and you want to see whether your screening markers and general health labs point toward a benign explanation such as inflammation, infection, or recent prostate irritation. Symptoms do not automatically mean cancer, and many prostate-related symptoms come from non-cancer causes.
If you are an athlete or you train intensely, you may also want a panel approach because exercise, ejaculation, cycling, and even minor illness can shift PSA and inflammatory markers. Seeing multiple markers together can reduce anxiety from a single out-of-context result.
This panel supports clinician-directed care and shared decision-making. It is not a diagnosis on its own, and abnormal results should be interpreted with your personal risk factors, exam findings, and follow-up testing when appropriate.
Lab methods, reference ranges, and reporting units vary by laboratory; your clinician should interpret trends and patterns across the panel rather than any single cutoff.
Lab testing
Order labs to measure Prostate & Testicular Health Panel
from $289 at Quest Diagnostics
About 1 week
Schedule online — results typically within a week
Clear next steps
Guidance included, with follow-up care available
HSA / FSA
Eligible for pre-tax health spending accounts
Get this panel with Vitals Vault
Vitals Vault lets you order this prostate and testicular health-focused lab panel directly, so you can establish a baseline or recheck results on a schedule that matches your risk and your clinician’s guidance.
After your blood draw, you receive a set of results that are meant to be read together: prostate screening markers plus supporting labs that can flag common confounders (like inflammation, anemia, kidney function changes, or liver-related protein shifts). That context matters when you are trying to decide whether a result is reassuring, needs a repeat, or warrants a conversation about next steps.
If you want help making sense of multiple numbers at once, PocketMD can walk you through how the results fit together, what questions to ask, and when a repeat panel (or adding a male hormone panel for testosterone context) may be reasonable based on your goals.
- One order, one blood draw, multiple clinically relevant markers
- Designed for trend tracking (baseline → repeat testing when appropriate)
- PocketMD support to interpret results in context of age, symptoms, and risk
Key benefits of the Proactive Cancer Screening Essential Prostate Testicular Health Panel
- Gives you a prostate screening snapshot using PSA with added context rather than a single isolated value.
- Helps reduce “borderline PSA” uncertainty by pairing prostate markers with general health and inflammation signals.
- Supports smarter retesting decisions by establishing a baseline you can compare against future results (trend matters).
- Flags common non-cancer reasons PSA can rise, such as infection, inflammation, recent ejaculation, or prostate irritation.
- Provides safety context for follow-up planning by including kidney and liver-related markers that affect overall risk assessment.
- Helps you and your clinician decide whether to watch, repeat, or escalate to additional evaluation based on a pattern of results.
- Creates a clean starting point for combining screening labs with hormone context (for example, adding a male hormone panel when symptoms overlap).
What is the Proactive Cancer Screening Essential Prostate Testicular Health Panel?
The Proactive Cancer Screening Essential Prostate Testicular Health Panel is a bundled set of lab tests designed to support prostate screening conversations and to add clinical context around prostate-related symptoms or PSA changes. Because it is a panel, you receive multiple results at once—typically including prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing and supporting bloodwork that can influence how PSA is interpreted.
PSA is a protein produced by prostate tissue. PSA can rise for many reasons, including benign prostate enlargement (benign prostatic hyperplasia, BPH), prostatitis (inflammation), urinary tract infection, recent ejaculation, prostate manipulation, and sometimes prostate cancer. That is why PSA screening is often discussed as a shared decision: the test can be helpful, but it can also create anxiety and lead to follow-up testing that may not be necessary for everyone.
A panel approach aims to make PSA more interpretable by checking related markers at the same time. For example, a normal blood count and low inflammatory markers may support a “repeat and monitor” approach when PSA is only mildly elevated, while signs of infection or inflammation may point toward treating and retesting. Kidney and liver markers can also matter when planning imaging, medications, or broader health optimization.
This panel does not diagnose prostate or testicular cancer. It is best viewed as a screening and context tool that helps you decide what to do next: repeat testing, lifestyle timing adjustments before retesting, or clinical evaluation.
What do my panel results mean?
When key markers look low
In this panel, “low” most often applies to supporting markers rather than PSA itself—for example, low hemoglobin/hematocrit (anemia) or low albumin/total protein. These patterns do not point to prostate cancer, but they can change how you approach symptoms and follow-up. Anemia can contribute to fatigue and may need its own workup, while low protein markers can reflect nutrition issues, inflammation, or liver/kidney conditions. If PSA is low or stable and the rest of the panel is otherwise reassuring, that combination often supports routine screening intervals rather than urgent escalation, assuming your risk factors are not high.
When the overall pattern is reassuring
A reassuring pattern usually means PSA is within your lab’s reference range (and stable compared with prior tests), inflammatory markers are not elevated, and general health labs like CBC and metabolic markers are in range. This does not guarantee “no cancer,” but it lowers the likelihood that a current PSA value is being distorted by infection or systemic illness. In this situation, the most useful next step is often trend-based planning: keep a consistent testing cadence, avoid known PSA confounders before future draws, and discuss individualized screening intervals based on age, family history, and ancestry.
When one or more results are high
A higher PSA result can be concerning, but the panel is designed to help you interpret whether the rise fits a common benign pattern. If PSA is elevated alongside signs of inflammation or infection (for example, elevated white blood cells or inflammatory markers), your clinician may consider treating a reversible cause and repeating PSA after an appropriate interval. If PSA is elevated without signs of infection and the increase is persistent or rising over time, that pattern may support further evaluation such as repeat PSA with timing controls, additional prostate risk stratification tests, imaging, or referral—especially if you have higher baseline risk (family history or certain ancestry).
Factors that can influence this panel
PSA is sensitive to timing and recent exposures. Ejaculation, vigorous cycling, prostate stimulation, urinary retention, and some procedures can raise PSA temporarily; illness and inflammation can also shift multiple markers in the panel at once. Medications matter too: 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors (often used for BPH) can lower PSA and change how results should be interpreted, while testosterone therapy may alter prostate-related monitoring strategy even if it does not directly “cause” prostate cancer. Age and prostate size influence baseline PSA, and what matters clinically is often the combination of your absolute value, your trend (velocity), your risk factors, and whether supporting labs suggest a transient explanation.
What’s included in this panel
- Absolute Band Neutrophils
- Absolute Basophils
- Absolute Blasts
- Absolute Eosinophils
- Absolute Lymphocytes
- Absolute Metamyelocytes
- Absolute Monocytes
- Absolute Myelocytes
- Absolute Neutrophils
- Absolute Nucleated Rbc
- Absolute Plasma Cells
- Absolute Prolymphocytes
- Absolute Promyelocytes
- Absolute Reactive Lymphocytes
- Albumin
- Albumin/Globulin Ratio
- Alkaline Phosphatase
- Alt
- Arachidonic Acid
- Arachidonic Acid/Epa Ratio
- Ast
- Band Neutrophils
- Basophils
- Bilirubin, Total
- Blasts
- Bun/Creatinine Ratio
- C-Reactive Protein
- Calcium
- Carbon Dioxide
- Chloride
- Creatinine
- Dha
- Dpa
- Egfr
- Eosinophils
- Epa
- Epa+Dpa+Dha
- Folate, Serum
- Globulin
- Glucose
- Hematocrit
- Hemoglobin
- Igf 1, Lc/Ms
- Linoleic Acid
- Lymphocytes
- Mch
- Mchc
- Mcv
- Metamyelocytes
- Monocytes
- Mpv
- Myelocytes
- Neutrophils
- Nucleated Rbc
- Omega-3 Total
- Omega-6 Total
- Omega-6/Omega-3 Ratio
- Plasma Cells
- Platelet Count
- Potassium
- Prolymphocytes
- Promyelocytes
- Protein, Total
- Psa, Total
- Rdw
- Reactive Lymphocytes
- Red Blood Cell Count
- Selenium
- Sodium
- Testosterone, Free
- Testosterone, Total, Ms
- Urea Nitrogen (Bun)
- Vitamin D, 25-Oh, D2
- Vitamin D, 25-Oh, D3
- Vitamin D, 25-Oh, Total
- White Blood Cell Count
- Z Score (Female)
- Z Score (Male)
- Zinc
Similar tests and panels to consider
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this panel a cancer test or a screening panel?
It is a screening-oriented lab panel. It can help you and your clinician assess risk and decide on next steps, but it does not diagnose prostate or testicular cancer by itself. Diagnosis typically requires clinical evaluation and, when appropriate, imaging and/or tissue sampling.
Do I need to fast before this panel?
Fasting is usually not required for PSA, CBC, CRP/ESR, AFP, hCG, or LDH. However, some clinicians prefer fasting for metabolic markers included in a CMP depending on your broader health goals. Follow the collection instructions you receive, and try to keep your prep consistent if you plan to trend results over time.
What should I avoid before a PSA blood draw to reduce false alarms?
To reduce the chance of a temporary PSA bump, many clinicians recommend avoiding ejaculation and vigorous cycling for 24–48 hours before testing, and postponing testing during a urinary infection or acute prostatitis symptoms. If you recently had a prostate procedure or catheterization, ask your clinician how long to wait before testing.
How do I interpret a borderline PSA in the context of this panel?
A borderline PSA is best interpreted with your age, prior PSA values (trend), and supporting markers. If inflammation or infection signals are present (for example, abnormal urinalysis or elevated inflammatory markers), repeating PSA after treating or resolving the trigger may be appropriate. If PSA is persistently elevated without a clear trigger—especially if it is rising over time—your clinician may discuss additional evaluation.
What is free PSA and why is it included?
Free PSA is the portion of PSA in the blood that is not bound to proteins. The free PSA percentage (free/total) can add context when total PSA is in a gray zone, because certain patterns of free PSA may be associated with different risk levels. It is not definitive on its own, but it can help guide shared decision-making.
Can exercise or training affect my results?
Yes. Intense exercise, especially activities that put pressure on the perineum (like cycling), can temporarily affect PSA in some people. Training load, minor illness, and inflammation can also shift CRP/ESR and sometimes white blood cell patterns. If you are tracking trends, try to test under similar conditions each time.
Should I order this panel or order PSA alone?
If you only need a quick PSA check and you already have a clear plan with your clinician, a single test may be enough. If you are anxious about a borderline value, you want a baseline with more context, or you have symptoms where infection/inflammation could be a confounder, a panel can be more informative because it helps explain why PSA might be changing.
How does ordering Prostate & Testicular Health Panel work?
Purchase online through Vitals Vault. A licensed clinician reviews and approves your order, then you receive a digital requisition for a Quest Diagnostics blood draw.
Where do I get my blood drawn?
Samples are collected in person at Quest Diagnostics locations nationwide. After checkout you can schedule your visit at a convenient site.
How long until I get results?
Most results are ready about a week after your draw. You can view them securely in your Vitals Vault account.
Do I need a doctor referral?
No separate referral appointment is required. Clinician review is included in the online order flow.
Are HSA and FSA accepted?
Yes. Eligible HSA/FSA cards can be used at checkout for qualifying lab orders.
Are my results private?
Results are available in your secure Vitals Vault account. You control who you share them with, subject to applicable law.
What is the difference between blood glucose and A1c?
Blood glucose shows the amount of sugar in your blood at a single moment. A1c (hemoglobin A1c) estimates your average blood sugar over roughly the past 8–12 weeks. Comparing them helps explain whether your long-term average lines up with your fasting glucose on draw day.
What does Prostate & Testicular Health Panel help me understand?
It helps you understand how this marker fits into your broader metabolic picture, with results tracked in your Vitals Vault account.
What can I do if my A1c or glucose results are elevated?
Elevated values can signal higher metabolic risk. Many people start with nutrition, activity, sleep, and weight management, then retest and review results with a clinician. This test is educational and does not replace medical advice or diagnosis.
How accurate is this testing?
Your sample is processed at CLIA-certified Quest Diagnostics laboratories. Results should still be interpreted with a qualified clinician alongside your history, symptoms, and other labs.
Why is there an age minimum for ordering?
Consumer-initiated testing through Vitals Vault is limited to adults 18+ so ordering and interpretation stay aligned with clinical best practices for this channel.
