After a prostate cancer diagnosis, tests are done to detect how the cancer has spread, if it has, outside the prostate. Not all men need every test. It depends on the characteristics of a man’s prostate cancer seen on biopsy. Tests to help determine the stage of prostate cancer include:
- Digital rectal exam
- Prostate-specific antigen (blood test)
- Transrectal ultrasound
- MRI of the prostate using a rectal probe
- CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis, looking for prostate cancer metastasis to other organs
- MRI of the skeleton, or a nuclear medicine bone scan, to look for metastasis to bones
- Surgery to examine the lymph nodes in the pelvis for any prostate cancer spread