THE "NEW" PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK

Yesterday evening we were pleased to be able to collaborate with CureTalks to host a conversation with Dr. Eli Van Allen — the principal investigator for the Metastatic Prostate Cancer Project — to “spread the word” about this initiative. An audiorecording of the program is now available on line for those who were unable to dial in to the program at the time.

Here are just a few of the key points made by Dr. Van Allen during the program:

• This is a patient-driven project. It is patients themselves who are front and center in this project and who have been intimately involved in its design and implementation from day 1.
• Although it is called the “Metastatic Prostate Cancer Project”, any man with any form of progressive prostate cancer (from biochemical recurrence after first-line treatment through to castration-resistant disease) is eligible to participate.
• Over 250 patients have already signed up in just over the first month of the project.
• The goal is to build a vast database of genetic and genomic information about men with progressive and metastatic forms of prostate cancer and then to correlate the data to information about the management and treatment of those patients over time.
• The development of such a database will help to accelerate the process of seeking and discovering more effective and safer forms of treatment for highly defined groups of men with specific subtypes of prostate cancer.
• All participants will receive regular updates about the program and its findings.
• Early findings from a precursor program have already helped to define the potential roles of platinum chemotherapy and PARP inhibitors in the treatment men with prostate cancers associated with so-called DNA-repair mutations.
• You can find out more and/or sign up for the program if you just click on mpcproject.org.

We encourage all patients to “spread the word” about this project — through support groups, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. Let’s all work together to get at least 2,000 patients signed up within the first year of the project.

Our thanks to Dr. Van Allen and to CureTalk for helping us with this program — as well as to patient advocates Joel Nowak (of Cancer ABCs), Paul Carpenter, and Jan Manarite for their participation.

Filed under: Living with Prostate Cancer | Tagged: advanced, database, genetic, genomic, metastatic |