On Aug 4th, Dr. Martin Tenniswood(Chief Scientific Officer – miR Scientific) spoke at our Active Surveillance Virtual Support Group with a special presentation titled “The Future of Liquid Biopsies in Active Surveillance”
Dr. Tenniswood is the co-founder of miR Scientific, which is developing a new liquid biopsy known as Sentinel. He has been searching for the “Holy Grail,” a liquid biopsy for prostate cancer, throughout his 40-year career. He spoke about his search and research in this arena.
We want to thank Dr. Tenniswood for answering questions!
To view the slides from this presentation, click here.
For information on our peer-led video chat ACTIVE SURVEILLANCE PROSTATE CANCER VIRTUAL SUPPORT GROUP, click here.
To SIGN UP for the Group or any other of our AnCan Virtual Support groups, visit our Contact Us page.
On July 29th, we hosted an informational webinar titled “Is Gleason 6 Really Prostate Cancer? – A Debate!“.
Dr. Ming Zhou (Pathologist-in-Chief and Chair of Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, Tufts Medical School), and Dr. Scott Eggener (Vice Chair of Urology at the University of Chicago), each presented their cases at the AnCan program in this video.
Dr. Zhou took the view that if it looks like a cancer, which Gleason does under the microscope, then it’s a cancer. One of Dr. Eggener’s key points, in response, is that he has never seen a patient die from Gleason 6 so why call it a cancer.
The question-and-answer period covered such issues as whether a high-volume Gleason 6 is more risky than a low-volume Gleason 3+4=7. Dr. Eggener argued that these Gleason 6’s can be risky. He also said not enough men with 3+4 go in AS. The doctors engage in an informative and entertaining cross-fire discussion that should not be missed.
So who won? Our poll showed that before the debate: that 55% of respondents thought Gleason 6 is a cancer, while 10% thought it wasn’t a cancer. 35% were unsure.
The numbers changed dramatically after the debate: Only 22% thought Gleason 6 is cancer, 47% said Gleason 6 is not a cancer, and the remaining 31% were unsure. Dr. Eggener clearly won the debate.
The following day, Dr. Zhou got back to us saying:
“Dr. Eggener has won me over. I am now in his camp. I just proposed to work together to educate pathologists on this topic. As you know, I am also the president of Genitourinary Pathology Society (GUPS, an international GU pathology society). I will do my part to change the name.”
Rick’s view on the webinar is simple: “If there’s a real winner from this debate, it’s that AnCan is bringing the sides closer together!”
I happen to agree!
Watch the must see debate here:
Special thanks to Myovant Sciences – Pfizer, Foundation Medicine, and Advanced Accelerator Applications for sponsoring this webinar.
On July 22nd, we had so much fun once again with our very own Hannah Garrison (Artist, MS activist, and moderator for our MS virtual support group) lead our appropriately titled…”Art With Hannah Garrison“! It has a Saturday Night Live ring to it, don’t you think? She was requested to teach something relaxing and summer-y, and did she deliver!
We created an absolutely beautiful dusk beach setting, that is begging for a pineapple drink with a little umbrella in your hand. Last time we had an event to celebrate MS Awareness Month, but this time all were welcome. We saw members from our Blood Cancers, Prostate Cancer, Thyroid Cancer, MS Group, and more!
I promise this is SO easy and relaxing, so grab some supplies and have an hour of creative relaxation.
Supplies:
Acrylic paint or watercolor paint. (It will be watered down, so it doesn’t matter!) Colors – blue or aqua / dark blue / orange/ pink / purple. (colored pencils were also successfully used in this art project!)
Paint brush – round or flat.
Black crayon, but any dark color will be ok!
Water
Napkins
If you have any suggestions, or would like your art featured in the AnCan Art Gallery, please email me at alexa (at) ancan.org!
To SIGN UP for any of our AnCan Virtual Support groups, visit our Contact Us page.
On July 7th, Dr. Niels Olson(Pathologist, researcher, and Chief Medical Officer, Defense Innovation Unit In Mountainview, California) spoke at our Active Surveillance Virtual Support Group with a special presentation titled “Son, I have prostate cancer. What do I do now?”
Dr. Olson shared about his prostate cancer research journey, both professional and personal. Dr. Olson’s father’s diagnosis with prostate cancer set Olson on this path.
Watch him share his research using machine learning, or “artificial intelligence,” to teach computers how to read slides from radical prostatectomies and biopsies. In some circumstances, machines can outperform humans. But Dr. Olson said the machines are not ready to take over. He explains some of the finer points of pathology in this video.
We want to thank Dr. Olson for answering questions!
Watch here:
(Slides to be posted here soon!)
For information on our peer-led video chat ACTIVE SURVEILLANCE PROSTATE CANCER VIRTUAL SUPPORT GROUP, click here.
To SIGN UP for the Group or any other of our AnCan Virtual Support groups, visit our Contact Us page.
At AnCan, we love any reason to celebrate, and this is a GREAT reason!
Our Active Surveillance Prostate Cancer Moderator Howard Wolinsky and his wife Judi celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on June 29th. Surely this picture of them on their wedding day will make your heart melt!
All of us want to give a huge THANK YOU to Howard for all he does for AnCan and the AS community. We are so grateful for Howard providing thoughtful discussion topics, insightful speakers, and bringing important subjects to the AS community to the forefront.
Judi is also beloved in the community, as the way Howard highly speaks of her would make anyone a fan as well.
Happy Anniversary, Judi and Howard! Here’s to 50 years of being great together, and may there be many, many more.
