What an Experience
Yesterday was incredibly busy here at the 2013 Genitourinary Cancers (GU) Symposium here in Orlando, Florida.
I’m here at the courtesy of the American Society of Clinical Oncology as a prostate cancer patient advocate. My sole responsibility is to sit in on as many of the presentations as I can and make that knowledge available to the people in my network – those of you reading this blog and participating in PCAP’s awareness and advocacy programs.
Anyone attending this conference, especially a lay person like myself, cannot help but be struck by the level of knowledge and dedication of the men and women working in the cancer research and treatment fields. The level of scholarship is incredible, and the attendees come from all over the world. Yesterday I had breakfast with the Scandinavian contingent, lunch with the French, and a post-session beer with the Germans. Breakfast this morning was with two physicians from India.
There isn’t much literature here in layman’s terms, and really understanding the research results being presented demands at least a BA in chemistry and biology and a solid understanding of statistics and statistical analysis. Thank goodness for my stats course at UCLA.
Information People Can Use
As a 10-year prostate cancer survivor – now entering the period when prostate cancer typically recurs for 28-53% of prostate cancer survivors with localized disease – I’m always looking for understandable and practical information I can use to mitigate against a recurrence of my prostate cancer.
So far, I’ve found two interesting tools for men who still are in the diagnostic process, MDxHealth and Opko Diagnostics.
MDxHealth
MDxHealth provides a testing tool to doctors that gives doctors a much better tool for confirming a negative biopsy result, precluding a false-negative test result. You can find details on the company at http://MDxHealth.com.
Opko Diagnostics
Opko Diagnostics has developed a new prostate cancer detection tool that is better at detecting prostate cancer than the current PSA test. The new tool currently is only approved for use in Europe, but Opko has applied for FDA approval. We’ll let you know when it is available.
The new test uses total PSA, Free PSA, intact PSA, and Kallikrein-related peptidase 2 (hK2).
ProstateTracker Gets Great Reviews
Everyone I’ve talked with loves ProstateTracker. They like the simplicity and the fact that it gives men a tool they can use to track their prostate cancer risk.
You can create your own free prostate cancer early detection tool at ProstateTracker.org. Just click the link at left or the ProstateTracker icon below, and do it right now!
Know your prostate cancer risk. Create your free prostate cancer early detection account today.
Warm regards to All,
Robert
