PSA tests and new national recommendations – free lecture tonight

WHAT: A free public lecture on how men can better understand their PSA results, with a focus on new national guidelines on active surveillance just released by the National Cancer Institute. The lecture is organized by the Cancer Therapy & Research Center at The University of Texas Health Science Center

WHEN: 6 – 7:30 p.m. Thursday, December 8, 2011

WHERE: CTRC, 7979 Wurzbach, 4th Floor Grossman Building, San Antonio

WHO: Ian M. Thompson, Jr. M.D., CTRC director, will talk about how to put PSA results in perspective along with age and other risk factors.

Many men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and treatment can carry serious side effects such as incontinence and impotence. Not every man who is diagnosed will need treatment, and active surveillance can help determine whether it is needed.

“The draft consensus statement from this week’s National Cancer Institute State of the Science Conference was right on target: active surveillance for low-risk prostate cancer (about half of the cancers diagnosed in the U.S.) is an important option for men with newly-diagnosed prostate cancer. The primary benefit is avoidance of side effects of treatment, and the opportunity to take advantage of the continuous improvements in treatment we are seeing,” Thompson said. Thompson was one of the lead presenters during the three-day conference. As Chair of the GU Committee of the Southwest Oncology Group, one of NCI’s flagship national clinical trials organizations, Thompson said, “We plan to develop studies to further improve this management strategy.”

“Our goal for prostate cancer is to maximize cure rate for those men who have higher-risk tumors while maximizing the quality of life of men whose tumor pose them a very low risk during their lifetime.”

For more information, call 210-450-1152. Sponsored by H-E-B and the Institute for the Integration of Medicine and Science.

The Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC) at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is one of the elite academic cancer centers in the country to be named a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Designated Cancer Center, and is one of only four in Texas. A leader in developing new drugs to treat cancer, the CTRC Institute for Drug Development (IDD) conducts one of the largest oncology Phase I clinical drug programs in the world, and participates in development of cancer drugs approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. For more information, visit www.ctrc.net.



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