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The risk of prostate cancer increases faster with age than any other form of cancer. The increasing life span of our aging population places a greater number of men at risk for this disease. One such man was my father. With little or no warning, Robert Benjamin Ablin went into acute urinary retention and was diagnosed with metastatic cancer of the prostate. This was in 1978, in an era of limited ability to diagnose prostate cancer. He was diagnosed in a late stage of his disease; he died one year later, in August 1979. |
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Founded in his memory, the Foundation is directed toward development and improvement of methods of early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of prostate cancer.
In 1970, Dr. Richard J. Ablin and his research team discovered antigens of the human prostate, including prostate tissue-specific antigen, that later became known as PSA1,2. PSA is prostate-specific, not cancer-specific3. Men need to be careful about placing too much emphasis on their PSA numbers as the test has significant limitations.
Doctor Ablin was one of the pioneers and early proponents of the use of cryosurgery, and coined the term and concept of "cryoimmunotherapy", for the treatment of prostate cancer4.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES OF THE FOUNDATION
Public Advocacy
“All men and their families must be informed of all of their treatment options, not just those that special interest groups may want them to know about, and to understand their respective expected risks and benefits.”
The PSA Test: What is it? What does it tell us?
What constitutes an adequate diagnosis?
Treatment options
After treatment, i.e., the cancer survivor
Research
Objectives:
Differentiation of early prostate cancer that may be latent (indolent) from one that is aggressive and clinically important and should be treated.
Development of response criteria (biological markers), other than PSA, to evaluate the effectiveness of new therapeutic regimens and/or agents.
Refinement of the "immunostaging" of patients as a means to:
Assess and correlate their immunologic and clinical status prior to and following therapy
Assess their potential to respond to immunologic-based therapy
Approaches via:
| Prostate Cancer Information and Links | Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) | |
| Interests/Projects of the Foundation | Recommended Reading | |
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| Help the Foundation | Members of the Foundation | |
Click on the Logo for Eligibility/Prescreening info and to learn more about this Study
Thanks to Galil Medical, Inc for their support!
References:
1. Ablin RJ et al. Journal of Reproduction and Fertility 1970; 22(3): 573-74.
2. Ablin RJ et al. Journal of Immunology 1970; 104(6): 1329-39.
3. Ablin RJ. Cancer 1972; 29(6) 1570-74.
4. Ablin RJ et al. Cryobiology, 1971, 8(3):271-79.
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