We are in the midst of sea change on how prostate cancer is treated.
After decades of study, trial and error, and moments of insight and discovery, genetic science has finally reached critical momentum, and new breakthroughs, many of them funded by the Prostate Cancer Foundation, are happening almost daily.
Through the treatment of advance prostate cancers – that is, those that are unusually resistant to standards of treatment – PCF discovered that gene mutations were responsible for some of the most persistent variations of prostate cancer. With that information in hand, we have begun funding research to target each of these gene mutations, one by one, until we have a solution.
What’s of great interest to us as well is a patient’s ability to get tested: with just a simple blood test, doctors can now determine if you have many of these mutations.
Lastly, and maybe most importantly, research funded by PCF is beginning to unravel the relationship between these genes and other cancers. That also means that we’re unraveling the risks for your whole family; in other words, your risk of prostate cancer may actually increase your daughter’s risk for breast cancer, or vice versa.