ABSTRACT
Though we had known of each other early in our academic careers, the friendship between PFS and I deepened over events involving prostate cancer in my family. Briefly, my father-in-law, who lived in the Norfolk area, had a transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) for benign disease carried out by PFS’s partner, Charles Devine. When Charles retired, PFS took over my father-in-law’s routine care, and we then began to communicate regularly about that care. Several years later I got a letter from PFS apologizing that my fatherin-law, now 82 years old, had been given a PSA blood test by mistake. I was informed that his PSA level was 20 ng/ml, and, because I had by then started speaking and publishing on the use of PSA,1 PFS asked for my advice. Of course, we did not then appreciate the importance of a PSA of 20 ng/ml and, while healthy, my father-in-law was 82! I do remember enquiring of some of my urologic oncology friends, and particularly remember one very famous one who looked at me as if I were crazy to even contemplate following up on the PSA. So I advised (and PFS agreed) that nothing be done or even followed, and I thwarted off the confusions of my wife and my extended family about why I was not concerned, if PSA was so important and prostate cancer so serious. PFS did confirm that my father-in-law’s digital rectal examination (DGE) was unremarkable for a post-TURP patient.
