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Nice chart ClayTrader - thank you.
Are we really having 5 more sessions? I heard it as 5 days of public comment.
It will be nice if there are more such sessions.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Yes. Very proactive of Dr. Barnhill presenting his company as a resource for further research!
HDVY is getting very good at publicizing ... go HDVY!
Odd though they did not mention that they are waiting on Quest and Abbott - perhaps because of their contractual agreements?
Health Discovery Corporation Supports the Efforts of New York Congressman Edolphus Towns and His Holding of the Public Hearing on Prostate Cancer Screening
Last update: 3/4/2010 3:41:01 PM
SAVANNAH, Ga., Mar 04, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Health Discovery Corporation (HDVY) announced today that it delivered a letter of gratitude and support to Congressman Edolphus Towns, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for holding today, March 4, 2010, a congressional hearing on "Prostate Cancer: New Questions About Screening and Treatment."
"Congressman Towns' public hearing is timely and appropriate, given the overwhelming data about the failures of the PSA for detecting clinically significant prostate cancer," said Stephen D. Barnhill, Chairman and CEO of Health Discovery Corporation. "Given our pioneering work in molecular diagnostic testing for prostate cancer, Health Discovery Corporation naturally offered to Congressman Towns our gratitude, support and ourselves as a resource to him and his committee as he continues to explore this important issue," said Dr. Barnhill.
The full text of the letter is as follows:
March 4, 2010
The Honorable Edolphus Towns, Chairman House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 2157 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairman Towns,
Thank you for your leadership on promoting awareness and research about prostate cancer. Indeed, it is our hope that your hearing, Prostate Cancer: New Questions About Screening and Treatment, will raise the level of understanding about prostate cancer among members and generate the kind of detailed examination that will help us advance research for testing and treatment for this terrible disease. As you well know, there is an estimated 192,280 new cases of prostate cancer in 2009 and some 27,360 deaths from the disease.
Health Discovery Corporation's new 4-gene molecular diagnostic test for prostate cancer has been shown to have a 90% Sensitivity (for finding clinically significant grade 3 or higher prostate cancer cells) and a 97% Specificity (for finding non-cancerous cells) was recently published in the peer-reviewed publication, UroToday International (August 2009).
Health Discovery Corporation (HDC) shares your commitment to exploring solutions to prostate cancer. Indeed, HDC is a pioneer in developing sophisticated pattern recognition technology called "Support Vector Machine" (SVM) and has developed, and continues to develop, effective molecular diagnostic tests for cancer. Currently, we have 42 issued patents and 32 pending patents involving SVM technology.
SVM technology has been shown in numerous peer-reviewed publications from some of the top academic institutions in the world to be a superior pattern recognition tool for molecular diagnostic/prognostic test development. By analyzing vast amounts of data (including genomic, proteomic, and clinical data on patients, as well as, image analysis data from both digital pathology and radiology), HDC can develop objective and accurate tests for use in personalized medicine. Personalized medicine identifies the correct treatment, for the correct patient, in the correct dose.
Of particular interest to you may be our new partnership with the Pancreas, Biliary and Liver Surgery Center of New York (the "Center") to develop new molecular diagnostic tests for the early detection of pancreatic cancer. The Center is providing HDC with colon specimens that will facilitate the final validation study for our colon cancer test. As you may well know, the Center is affiliated with Beth Israel Hospital, New York Downtown Hospital, St. John's Hospital, Lenox Hill Hospital, St. Vincent's Hospital and Mt. Sinai Medical Center.
Again, Mr. Chairman, thank you for your leadership on this issue. We look forward to reviewing the results of the hearing today and offer ourselves as a resource to you and your committee as you continue to explore this important issue.
Well put. It is incredible how they get away with the cliche "more research needs to be done ..." blah blah blah!
Private/Public companies are far more efficient in using the money to get things done.
Yes events are converging ...
Thank you dollardaze for that link ... it was helpful!
They are *so* ready to move to the new biomarker test! Each one of them repeatedly mentions the need to have a biomarker based simple blood and urine test for prostate cancer!
He is letting go his PSA days ... he is now looking towards a new blood and urine test using biomarkers - the fact that he openly stated this on capitol hill!
Once our new tests come out, the medical community, generally does not let go of a legacy test and suddenly shift to a new one - In my opinion, there will be a gradual transition - of using our new tests along with PSA for a while before fully shifting to these new tests.
Awesome ... they are setting this up....
"We need a blood and urine test to diagnose prostate cancer"!!!
Bob check out this link from ACS - that dispels that ... key is early screening and being aware of the disease and treatment options ...
African-American Men Need Early Prostate Cancer Screening
African-American men are known to have a greater risk of developing prostate cancer. But is the cancer more aggressive in African-American men compared to white men? Many experts think so.
However, according to two recent reports, that may not be the case.
When detected early and monitored closely if the cancer recurs, prostate cancer may not differ for men of different ethnic backgrounds. The real disparity may be in lack of screening and delayed treatment in African-American men.
African-American Men Have More Prostate Cancer Recurrence
The first study examined whether African-American men had a worse prognosis for prostate cancer after recurrence than white men, as reported in the Journal of Urology (Vol. 166: 1328-1332) by Eric A. Bissonette, MS, from the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center in Charlottesville, and colleagues.
The researchers reviewed the medical records of 955 men treated with surgery for localized disease. From this group, 127 white and 37 African-American men who developed evidence of cancer recurrence were studied further.
The researchers then determined for each man the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) velocity, a measurement for how quickly the protein increases — the higher the velocity, the more rapid the increase in prostate cancer. PSA is a protein produced by the prostate gland; levels of PSA usually rise in men with prostate cancer.
PSA is followed in prostate cancer patients to monitor response to treatment and cancer growth once it recurs.
PSA Velocity Shown to be the Same for All
When analyzed for the effects of race, the researchers found no difference between African-American men and white men for PSA velocity when the prostate cancer recurred. According to the authors, looking at PSA velocities can be used as a substitute measure for tumor aggressiveness.
They conclude, "These results suggest that the reason for the higher incidence and mortality of African-American patients may not be due to tumor growth rate, but other biological or behavioral features that remain to be determined fully."
African-American Men Have More Advanced Disease When Diagnosed
What could those features be? African-American men have more advanced disease when they are first diagnosed with prostate cancer. Could delay in diagnosis be the cause or is the cancer more aggressive in these men?
What would happen if African-American men took advantage of screening for prostate cancer at the same rate as white men, and received the same medical treatment?
By looking at medical care provided in military health facilities that provide equal access, researchers were able to determine the trends in prostate cancer management in 797 consecutive patients from 1988 through 1999, as reported in Cancer (Vol. 92, No. 10: 2673-2679).
Of the patients studied, 195 men were African-American and 587 were white. Over time, Edmond L. Paquette, MD, from the Center for Prostate Disease Research, Rockville, Md., and colleagues, discovered there were remarkable improvements in the findings for African-American men when they were first diagnosed and treated for their prostate cancer.
Spread of the tumor decreased from 100% of the men to 34.8%. The tumors were completely removed in about three-fourths of the men at the end of the study period, compared to 100% of the African-American men having some microscopic evidence of tumor left behind.
PSA levels at the time of diagnosis also decreased dramatically for African-American men over the 10 years of the study, which meant the cancers were found much earlier. In fact, in the final year of the study, the PSA levels at diagnosis for African-American men and white men were almost identical. This was not the case at the beginning of the study.
Education and Access to Care Are Key to Lowering Risk
Why haven't all African-American men, regardless of where they receive their care, had the same benefits over time?
The authors comment, "The difference in access to care, at least in the nonmilitary population, and education are probably the most predominant factors contributing to the discrepancy in clinical outcomes between the races."
They go on to point out that African Americans must realize that prostate cancer is curable if found early, and that they have increased risk for the disease. The authors also note their data supports the American Cancer Society recommendation that African-American men begin PSA testing at age 45.
In conclusion, the authors report that their data "suggest that the predominant reason that African-American men had historically worse outcomes is because of inadequate screening and lack of equal treatment."
However, they also caution that further follow-up is necessary to be certain that the earlier diagnosis noted in this study translates into better survival.
No - I do not want to bring politics into this - just stating what I heard on this session - 1 billion dollars spent since 1997 for that program PC.
Wow ... 1 billion dollars of government money spent - and still no basic guidelines nor screening tests! Give a little bit to the entrepreneurial companies such as HDVY that are doing innovative research instead of government sponsored agencies!
You get a far better ROI! And practical results.
Yes renmanaz! When the entire country gets to know this company (which will be at least a year away), that is when it will be trading in the double digits.
The real money is in holding this long - for at least a year or more.
But to each their own.
I am NOT selling this now.
Thank you
Next ceiling is at .30.
Volume needs to strengthen here or this will lose its momentum.
Sorry did not reply earlier as I stepped away to eat lunch.
Yes - think of the possibilities - after Quest releases its news - how everyone will become fascinated with this simple test. We can expect most of the insurance companies to buy-in to this test - because it is very simple, cheap and saves them the cost of future prostate surgeries!
This session highlights how much confusion exists, how there are no clear guidelines when compared to say breast cancer and its screenings.
Healthy volume ... this momentum needs to break out of .25 to keep it going.
Yes Bob. This is the way I look at it ... The urine test would be the screener (qualifier) followed by the tissue test. The Urine test would supplement the Tissue test - Barnhill has nicely positioned so that HDVY will get reimbursed twice!
However, since the urine test would be more frequently used test since that is a screener, there would be fewer of the tissue test - since the urine screener test would have disqualified many folks.
Regardless, the volume of the urine tests will be great for HDVY - because of the simplicity and (hopefully) accuracy of the test.
Nice start for the day ... let's see how this momentum holds up!
Thank you Terry! Sorry to hear about the losses of your close ones.
SVM is the core asset of this company. Yes, this prostate diagnostic is just the beginning. They have barely scratched the surface.
Data mining and pattern recognition will continue to play major roles in this information age - there is so much information flowing through and the ability to quickly identify which ones are essential is the key! This has applications across the board in so many many industries.
I hope that this company can grow quite a bit - before it gets assimilated by a larger firm and lose its entrepreneurial ability!
Would love to see you post more often!
Cheers.
Excellent synopsis - yes, the ACS is slowly acknowledging the paradigm shift - the move towards gene based diagnostic tests for various cancers.
Just a matter of time before they shift their stance "officially". These public statements are the early stages of posturing to the public - reiterating why the current ones are doing more harm than good. Once the masses digest that, then they give the solution - here is a better test, such as HDVY's.
Please continue to keep posting - I value your thoughts.
Yes ... accumulate it in your IRA and sock it away and lock in your compounded gains - and retire ;)
Yes indeed! Once they realize that this is such an elegant and simple alternative to the current unreliable and invasive choice(!), watch how the media will lap it up --- coverage in magazines, TV, etc.
That is when this company will be in the double digits and everyone wants in.
Great research bobafett.
I liked these parts ...
"This will be the first Congressional hearing to deal specifically with prostate cancer in a decade"
"Additional funding is urgently needed to support research into better ways to identify and discriminate between very low risk (“indolent”) and higher risk (clinically significant and potentially lethal) forms of prostate cancer at the time of diagnosis"
Until more accurate tests are available, all health care insurance plans should include coverage of regular testing for prostate cancer ...
When they begin to realize that a company already has it and will be commercializing it shortly, watch the "eureka" moment! That will not happen now, but it will when Quest's news comes out.
Slowly I see these events shaping up - that will converge into making our HDVY prostate test the "Golden standard" of Prostate cancer diagnostics.
Next few months will indeed be very interesting!
Health Discovery Corporation Applauds American Cancer Society's Decision against the Use of the PSA for Routine Prostate Cancer Screening
Last update: 3/3/2010 3:54:00 PM
The New ACS Advice Goes Farther to Warn of the Limitations of the PSA Blood Test That Millions of American Men Get Now
SAVANNAH, Ga., Mar 03, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Health Discovery Corporation (HDVY) announced today that it supports the American Cancer Society's decision to issue new guidelines in the face of substantial data found in the largest prostate cancer studies ever conducted that were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2009. These published studies warned that using PSA to screen for prostate cancer doesn't necessarily save lives, and noted any benefits can come at a high price including over-diagnosis of prostate cancer leading to unnecessary treatments which can result in impotence and incontinence which are potentially devastating and life changing side effects in these men.
Health Discovery Corporation's Science Advisory Board member, Dr. Thomas Stamey, the founder and former chairman of the Department of Urology at Stanford University Medical Center, and a world renowned leader in prostate cancer published in the Journal of Urology several years ago: "The era of the PSA is over." At the time of Dr. Stamey's landmark publication, Health Discovery Corporation began the development of its new gene-based molecular diagnostic test for prostate cancer.
"Health Discovery Corporation's new, urine-based 4-gene prostate cancer test which has been shown to have a 90% Sensitivity (for finding clinically significant, grade 3 or higher prostate cancer cells) and a 97% Specificity (for finding non-cancerous cells) was recently published in the peer-reviewed publication UroToday International," said Stephen D. Barnhill, M.D., Chairman and CEO of Health Discovery Corporation. "We are very pleased that the American Cancer Society is now warning men and their doctors about the risks of using the PSA test for routine prostate cancer screening," said Dr. Barnhill.
Health Discovery Corporation's new urine-based 4-gene prostate cancer test is licensed on a royalty based, worldwide co-exclusive basis to Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (DGX) and Abbott (ABT).
The Associate Press released a story today on the American Cancer Society's new guidelines titled, "Cancer society stops urging docs to offer PSA test," by Mike Stobbe, AP Medical Writer, and Stephanie Nano contributed to the story.
You bet! The market awaits for an accurate and reliable prostate diagnostic test!
And our company just happens to have one up its sleeve.
All the more impetus for Quest to push this one through the system quickly.
Cheers
Cancer society stops urging docs to offer PSA test
ATLANTA – The American Cancer Society is urging doctors to make clearer to men that the test used to screen for prostate cancer has limits and may lead to unnecessary treatments that do more harm than good.
The cancer society has not recommended routine screening for most men since the mid-1990s, and that is not changing. But its new advice goes farther to warn of the limitations of the PSA blood test that millions of American men get now. It also says digital rectal exams should be an option rather than part of a standard screening.
The new advice is the latest pushback from routine screening to hunt for early cancers. Last year, a government task force said most women don't need mammograms in their 40s and a doctors group said most women in their 20s don't need annual Pap tests.
American men have long been urged to have prostate cancer screenings, but over time studies have suggested that most cancers found are so slow-growing that most men could have avoided treatment.
The Atlanta-based cancer society is perhaps the most influential group in giving screening advice. Its new guidance released Wednesday on prostate cancer urges doctors to:
_Discuss the pros and cons of testing with their patients, including giving them written information or videos that discuss the likelihood of false test results and the side effects of treatment.
_Stop giving the rectal exam as a standard prostate cancer screening because it has not clearly shown a benefit, though it can remain an option.
_Use past PSA readings to determine how often followup tests are needed and to guide conversations about treatment.
Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in American men. An estimated 192,000 new cases and 27,000 deaths from it occurred last year in the United States.
But it is a slow-growing cancer in many cases, and depending on a man's age, he may be more likely to die of something else. Major studies have suggested routine screening doesn't save lives and often leads to worry and unnecessary treatment.
The new cancer society recommendations could be "game changers" in two respects, said Dr. John Davis, a urologist who directs prostate cancer screening programs for the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
First, they could change how routine physical exams for many older men are conducted, he said. About 41 percent of men 50 and older get annual prostate cancer screenings. Even though the cancer society doesn't recommend routine PSA tests, many doctors do it without even asking their patients. And there's little conversation about it unless the test gives a worrisome result. The new guidelines may spur doctors to talk to their patients earlier about the pros and cons of getting the test in the first place.
Second, the guidelines could have a chilling effect on community prostate screening clinics in which hundreds of men line up and get free, quick exams, Davis said.
That was the intent, said Dr. Andrew Wolf, a University of Virginia physician who led the group that write the new guidelines.
"Yes, the guideline was explicitly crafted to put a damper on those community prostate screening activities that do not offer men the opportunity to make an informed decision whether to screen," Wolf said.
Prostate cancer screening became a medical mantra in the 1990s, thanks to the development of the PSA test. Some celebrities became advocates for routine testing, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the actor Brad Garrett from the TV sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond." In 2008, Garrett underwent an on-the-air digital rectal exam for a TV special called "Stand Up To Cancer."
But concerns about the value of routine screening increased last year, after two large studies concluded screening for prostate cancer doesn't necessarily save lives, and noted any benefits can come at a high price.
The American Urological Association — a longtime proponent of regular screening — last year backed off its call for annual tests after age 50. The group said men should be offered a baseline PSA test at age 40, with follow-ups at intervals based on each man's situation.
The group also has stood by the rectal exam as a standard part of screening, saying it can find cancer that the blood test does not.
The cancer society has been more cautious about regular screenings for some time. The organization last issued guidelines in 2001, which said merely that doctors should offer screening and discuss the risks and benefits.
The new guidelines back away even more, dropping the sentence that doctors should offer prostate screening. Instead, the society says some evidence indicates periodic screening can save lives but that there are significant uncertainties about the overall value of finding prostate cancer early. Screening should not take place, the new advice says, unless a patient is fully informed of the trade-offs.
In a nod to the busy workload of doctors, the guidelines recommend videos, brochures and other "patient decision aids."
Men at average risk should get detailed information around age 50, the society recommends. Men at higher risk, including African-Americans and men with a father or brother who had prostate cancer before age 65, should get the information beginning at age 45. Men with more than one close relative with prostate cancer before 65 should get such information at age 40.
For men who want to be screened regularly, the new guidelines recommend every other year if the PSA reading is less than 2.5, a measure of prostate specific antigen per milligram of blood. Annual tests are recommended for 2.5 or higher and a 4 suggests consideration of a biopsy.
The urological association considers the cancer society's advice too simplistic and says it's important to consider any rapid rise in PSA results.
The society's new guidelines rankled Skip Lockwood, president and CEO of Zero — The Project to End Prostate Cancer, formerly known as the National Prostate Cancer Coalition.
Lockwood's group recommends annual PSA tests for men beginning at 45, and conducts mobile prostate cancer screening programs at state fairs, churches and other sites. The group provides information about the risks and benefits of screening, and connects men to follow-up care if needed, he said.
What bothers him most in the new guidance is "the certainty of its tone," Lockwood said.
"We acknowledge that the PSA test is lacking. I think nobody disagrees on that fact. I think that we all understand that this is not cut and dry — not an all or nothing situation," he said.
Yes! On time ...
Nothing that has happened in the past few weeks has changed my mind regarding this company. On the contrary, the recent events have reinforced my outlook on this company.
I can understand Degreed's reason to unload a small percentage (he is forced to because he wants to re-shuffle his portfolio - absolutely nothing wrong with that!)
Check out this chart - I am accumulating here...
Chris posted this in Y msg board ... Myriad launches its diagnostic test to verify the RECURRENCE of prostate for those who ALREADY went through prostatectomy surgery ...
Myriad Genetics Launches PROLARIS(TM): First Diagnostic Test to Predict Prostate Cancer Recurrence
Mar 2, 2010 8:36:00 AM
SALT LAKE CITY, March 2, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE)
-- Myriad Genetics, Inc. (Nasdaq:MYGN) today announced the launch of PROLARIS(TM), a 46-gene prognostic test which quantitatively determines the risk of recurrence in patients who have undergone prostatectomy surgery. For the first time, physicians now have a direct molecular measure of a prostate tumor's capacity to divide and grow by examining the mechanics of growth at the molecular level. PROLARIS is the Company's eighth molecular diagnostic product and the first of two that are planned to be launched this year.
"After undergoing a radical prostatectomy, men often worry about their continuing risk of cancer recurrence," said Peter R. Carroll, M.D., M.P.H., Professor and Chair, Urology, University of California, San Francisco. "PROLARIS may offer very important information to the patient and his physician about the risk of his cancer recurring."
PROLARIS is a molecular diagnostic assay that offers urologists a more accurate way of determining a prostate cancer patient's risk of recurrence. The new molecular diagnostic test is based on cell growth and tumor biology and provides rigorous, quantitative measures of the expression levels of multiple genes related to progression of the cell cycle.
The test identifies patients at low risk of disease recurrence with 95% certainty giving these men confidence that additional aggressive treatment with the accompanying toxicity and adverse events is likely unwarranted. Conversely, men with high PROLARIS scores would be considered for more intensive screening and adjuvant therapy to address their more aggressive disease.
The Company is performing additional clinical validation studies to expand the utility of PROLARIS. In one such recently completed study of 365 prostate cancer patients, 98.5% of prostate cancer patients with a low (favorable) PROLARIS score survived their disease after 10 years, compared to 57.6% of the patients receiving a high (unfavorable) score who died of prostate cancer within 10 years.
"PROLARIS is a valuable additional tool that will enable urologists to provide an accurate, individualized recurrence risk score to men who have undergone a radical prostatectomy," stated Mark C. Capone, President, Myriad Genetic Laboratories, Inc. "We view PROLARIS as the first of a strong emerging stable of RNA signature tools based on fundamental tumor biology which Myriad will offer to the urology/oncology community."
In the United States, 192,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year and 80,000 men will undergo a radical prostatectomy, a surgical procedure that removes the prostate gland and some surrounding tissue. Approximately 35% of these men will eventually have a biochemical recurrence indicating the return of their prostate cancer. Current models based on clinical variables cannot effectively predict in which of these men the disease will recur.
Myriad will introduce PROLARIS to urologists and oncologists through its established oncology sales force and new urology sales team in the coming weeks. The cost for PROLARIS is $3,400.
Clinical Data on PROLARIS to be Presented
The clinical validation and scientific data supporting PROLARIS will be presented at the 2010 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium on March 5-7, 2010 in San Francisco. The abstract of the presentation entitled: "Cell Cycle Genes Predict Recurrence After Radical Prostatectomy" by Dr. Gregory P. Swanson and colleagues will be publically released on the American Society of Clinical Oncology's website, www.asco.org on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 at 6:00 pm Eastern.
Thanks for the info on Warrants.
I will be adding to my position between .20 & .22.
Cheers
Thanks for the news and research - bobafett & imperativity.
Does this imply that this stock will likely stay below .24 for next 30 days so that they can exercise the warrants?
Any thoughts from the warrant experts please...
I understand Bob - and many here share the same feeling - the PPS is in a tight range ... causing angst and frustration ... for the short term.
Cheers
I would not be too concerned about advertising this test - it will become popular very quickly ... it will become a de facto test - IF the accuracy/specificity is achievable. As we know, compared to the existing tests, this is darn good!
Quest did not become the behemoth it is without proper systems and teams in place - to roll out these types of tests. This kind of test is a huge asset to Quest - which is why it is working with HDVY, because Quest needs more revenues going forward.
So, the all important announcement by Quest needs to happen before this stock will cross the .42 ceiling - we all know that - but will have to wait it out... (which is the toughest part).
ha ha ... good to know!
This one also has all the right ingredients!
As some astute warrant experts predicted on this board ... that must be it ... what's putting a lid on this for the short term.
Good research folks!
True Bob - the sooner that day approaches - the better off we are!
Data mining through bio informatics is difficult ... this companies technology and its patents will help it grow fast - more & more drug companies are finding their patented drugs expiring and their drug pipeline dwindling. They need to come up with new revenues.
I will not be surprised if one of the drug giants buys up HDVY.
Looks like some attention to this stock today.