Prostate cancer kills more than ten Australians each day and is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the country. Now Adelaide researchers have made a discovery that has the potential to accurately identify prostate cancer in its early stages saving patients from either receiving too little or too much treatment.
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00:00 Andrew Bills was diagnosed with prostate cancer five years ago.
00:06 He considers himself lucky because his medium to high level cancer was found early.
00:11 A lot of people say, "You don't worry about getting prostate cancer until you're over 60."
00:16 Well, I was 52.
00:18 Mr Bills had his prostate surgically removed after undergoing a series of standard tests.
00:23 But researchers say those tests aren't accurate enough.
00:27 Now an Adelaide-based team has identified precise biomarkers for prostate cancer
00:33 to make it easier for pathologists to predict how the disease will progress.
00:37 The study is focusing on diagnosing low-risk groups early
00:41 to save patients from either getting too little or too much treatment,
00:45 which can be invasive and have ongoing health impacts like urinary incontinence.
00:51 There is a lot of uncertainty because you don't know what you're dealing with
00:53 and you don't know the extent of what you're dealing with and what your options are.
00:56 Within the first two years, there are 35% of those patients will require some intervention
01:01 and within five years that increases to 59%.
01:04 This research is groundbreaking.
01:07 It helps build a platform for the way we might treat prostate cancer in the future.
01:14 The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia is calling for more support for the disease,
01:20 saying it receives half the funding of other major cancers
01:24 despite being the country's most common form.
01:27 This latest research has been 15 years in the making
01:31 and it could be another five before Australians see the benefits.
01:35 This is, I guess, our first step in producing a sound data set
01:39 that will facilitate potentially a clinical trial that will bring the technology here.
01:43 I lost my best friend to prostate cancer and he was diagnosed at 44.
01:48 Hope for more breakthroughs to give others a fighting chance.
01:52 [BLANK_AUDIO]