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'BLADDER HEALTH WEEK,' NOV. 17-23
This year's focus: bladder cancer...Men's "other" cancer
WHAT: The second annual national "Bladder Health Week," sponsored
by the Bladder Health Council of the American Foundation for Urologic Disease (AFUD), begins November 17th. This year's focus is on bladder cancer.
Vice President Hubert Humphrey died of it. So did the well-known actor, Fernando Rey. As did the "father of public relations," Edward Bernays.
Bladder cancer strikes three times as many men as women and most commonly occurs in white males between the ages of 50-70. Recurrence of bladder cancer after surgery is approximately 70 percent. There used to be only one way for urologists to check a patient's bladder for recurring cancer -- guide a laser-optic tube ("cystoscope") through the urethra.
Today, there is a new option for bladder cancer patients -- "The Matritech NMP22(R) Test Kit," a simple urine test recently approved by the FDA for identifying patients who are at increased risk for rapid recurrence. Doctors now may be able to delay the routine cystoscopies needed following bladder cancer surgery for patients with normal NMP22 levels.
WHY: "More than 540,000 patients in the United States and some two million patients around the world may require treatment for bladder cancer. A non-invasive, quantitative, cost-effective tool to predict tumor recurrence in those patients is very much needed by all urologists. NMP22 is that tool." (Donald Lamm, M.D.)
WHO: Mark S. Soloway, M.D.
Chairman, Urologic Oncology, Univ. of Miami Sch. of Medicine
Donald Lamm, M.D.
Chairman, Dept. of Urology at West Virginia University
Gennaro A. Carpinito, M.D.
Chief of Urology, Boston City Hospital
Daniel B. Rukstalis, M.D.
Chief of Urology, Medical College of Pennsylvania
Lance Willsey, M.D.
Instructor, Dept. of Urology, Harvard Univ. Sch. of Medicine
Stephen D. Chubb
Founder, Chairman, CEO, Matritech Inc. (Nasdaq: NMPS) |
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