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.
AI
