AnCan’s ‘IDLE’ Howard Wolinsky hits the news!!
Going back many years, there has been debate around what is and what is not considered to be cancer. As an old-timer in the field of cancer advocacy I recall this debate ignited by UCSF breast cancer surgeon extaordinaire Dr. Lara Esserman when she spoke about IDLE in a Lancet article. IDLE stands for Indolent Lesion of Epithelial Origin. Early blogger Mike Scott latched onto this since the concept was supported by her UCSF prostate cancer colleagues, Drs. Peter Carroll and Matthew Cooperberg. Mike’s “new” Prostate Cancer Infolink article,New Terminology, IDLE threats, and human behavior (about cancer) from May 5, 2014 is defintiely worth a read!
Fast forward 8 years, and we are back in the midst of the same debate as to whether some suspect lesions should or should not be considered cancer. And who is that at the heart of this …. none othre than our own Advisory Board member, Howard Wolinsky stirring up the pot yet again along with urologist buddy, Dr. Scott Eggener from University of Chicago. Howard and Dr. Scott got to talking and rekindled this debate as to whether calling a suspicious lesion cancer too early can result in more harm than good. Howard, for example, had a life insurance policy application rejected in 2010 becasue of his prostate cancer diagnosis that has only produced one diagnosed Gleason 3+3 lesion in multiple screenings and biopsies over almost 13 years!. Dr. Eggener was motivated to write an journal article; he leads leads an illustrious group of authors that includes Matt Cooperberg … and of course Howard representing the patient voice in a controversial piece that appears in ASCO’s Journal of Clinical Oncology this month titled Low Grade Prostate Cancer: Time to Stop Calling It Cancer Low Grade PCa – not cancer HW JCO 0422 .
While Dr. Cooperberg maintains his opinion, Peter Carroll may no longer wholly endorse that view. He and another of our Advisory Board members, Dr. Jonathan Epstein, are preparing rebuttals. Another well respected medical professional went as far as to say privately,”Unfortunately I really struggle with this. Why do we need to infantilize patients. We don’t call metastatic cancer the ‘monster'” There are definitley two sides to the coin ….. from the anxiety the ‘C-word’ provokes and repurcussions that Howard found out can be financial; to failing to properly acknowledge the gravity and treatment of precancerous lesions medically and otherwise.
Read the Chicago Sun Times report here; and Howard Wolinsky’s own take posted on his blog here. To see Howard and Scott Eggener speak about this yourself, listen to them on Chicago NBC news …. then you decide!!