VA Pushes Research on Prostate Cancer

The headline on the Department of Veterans Affairs news release cited a grim fact: 12,000 veterans are diagnosed annually with prostate cancer.

The VA’s partnership with the Prostate Cancer Foundation can’t come too soon. Their goal: to prevent, screen and promote research to speed the development of treatments and cures among veterans.

To that end, they’re bringing together the big guns: researchers, data, cancer experts, advanced screenings and diagnostics. The PCF kicked in $50 million to get things started. PCF will be partnering with many groups around the country to enroll more veterans in studies, provide data for studies, increase the number of VA facilities applying to them for funding and much more.

Key in cancer treatment will be the development of precision medicine. The research and data also will be shared with public agencies and corporations.

This won’t be the VA’s first time partnering with others to search for cancer prevention and cure answers.

In 2016 alone, it was part of 262 projects. The new efforts include the Million Veteran Program, the world’s largest database of health, military and genetic data; VA Precision Oncology Program, providing state-of-the-art care; and VA Cooperative Studies Program, a colonoscopy screening, which wants to enroll 50,000 veterans. Meanwhile, don’t wait for a call. Take charge of this. If you haven’t had a prostate-specific antigen test in a while, go get one.

It’s a simple blood test that could save your life. Even if you have no symptoms at all, get the test.

The result will tell you the likelihood that you’ll ever develop cancer. You might just be told to come back for another test so the results can be compared. The earlier you get on this, the better. So, go.