The American Cancer Society estimates that in the year 2009, prostate cancer will be diagnosed in 192,280 men and 27,360 will die from the disease. Bladder cancer will be diagnosed in 52,810 men and 18,170 women and 14,330 will die from the disease.

Prostate cancer research is under funded compared to other serious conditions but in spite of that, there has been tremendous progress in the last ten years in both the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

With the help of research, we hope to transform aggressive and sometimes deadly prostate cancers into chronic diseases that minimally impact lives.

Clinical Trials

Greater participation in clinical trials by cancer patients will speed up the search for new and more effective treatments for cancer. Finding enough patients to conduct a clinical trial is sometimes a problem as nationally, only about 4 or 5 percent of cancer patients take part in clinical trials. Greater participation, especially by older patients and minority groups, would more accurately reflect the broader population of men with prostate cancer.

Clinical Trials are essential to prostate cancer to increase our knowledge about cancer and develop more-effective, less-toxic cancer treatments. Without clinical trials, new drugs and treatments could not be approved. No matter how promising a new treatment looks when tested with lab animals, it cannot be used to treat people until it has been carefully evaluated through the several phases of a clinical trial.
Blood and Tissue

Blood, tissue and other bodily fluids are valuable research tools used to learn more about the biology of prostate cancer, prostate cancer recurrence and response to treatments. With your consent, specimens would be collected at the time of your regularly scheduled lab work, or during regular treatment procedures. These specimens will be stored in a Tissue Bank and information on your blood, tissue and medical history stored in a database.

The information may be shared with other researchers to compare, contrast and analyze similarities and differences. Although you will not benefit directly from taking part in this study, your specimens will contribute to the understanding and treatment of the disease.

Financial Support

Many advances in patient care and treatments comes as a result of new ideas and approaches that appear to be promising. Often, these early concepts have no method of supporting themselves at the outset. For example, donor funds were used to hire our nurse practitioner until her practice grew; similarly, donor funds supported a clinical psychologist who worked with couples dealing with prostate cancer and sexuality/initmacy issues. We are currently raising funds to support electronic tablets technology that will help us collect and track patient symptoms whil providing patients with web based educational materials while they wait for their appointments. The data collected by e Tablets wil be used to fine tune approaches to symptom managment and relate quality of life to response to therapy. Donations support storage of tissue, blood, and urine specimens to be used in future research.

Donation Instructions

To donate directly to Prostate Cancer Research, mail your gift to:

Prostate Cancer Program Fund
c/o Dr. Celestia Higano
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
825 Eastlake Ave E
PO Box 19023
MS G4-830
Seattle , WA 98109-1023

To donate securely online using Visa/MasterCard, follow the link below to the University of Washington UW Support website.

Enter keywords: PROSTATE CANCER PROGRAM FUND to direct your donation to Dr. Higano's research.

https://secure.gifts.washington.edu/uw_foundation/gift.asp?page=search&processform1=1&fund=higano

You can also donate by phone by calling Jennifer Goforth Stead at (206) 543-8427 and direct your gift to the Prostate Cancer Program Fund.

All gifts are tax-deductible