Way to go, Jack! I lost my grandmother to pancreatic cancer.
StG
These kids today are just not like the way we were with their safety helmets and pancreatic cancer screening tests. Bunch of pansies.
True. Do you see him inventing a better set of lawn darts?
StG
If his test really does work well enough to become a standard screening test, that will be an incredible breakthrough for pancreatic cancer. As I’m sure you know, pancreatic cancer is almost always found at an advanced stage and is rapidly fatal in most cases. Since there are people who are known to be at higher risk of pancreatic cancer due to genetic factors, having an easy way to screen for pancreatic cancer at an early stage could make a huge difference for many.
It’s the #4 cause of cancer deaths worldwide, and is what killed Steve Jobs (and about 37,000 other Americans in 2011). A screening test to catch it earlier would be a great thing.
It’s especially good that this test is cheap and non-invasive. IF the product lives up to the promise, it might be able to be a part of a regular physical.
StG
Here’s another article which gives a few more particulars. Apparently it can detect other cancers also. At a cost of $.03 each. I would hope that there’s a good chance it works, given the prize he’s won.
StG
And the countdown til a drug company snatches this thing up and starts charging $800 a pop starts…now.
Seems a little too good to be true, but the kid clearly is talented and motivated enough to solve a problem that really needs to be solved. That can only help in the long run.
What is the strip testing for? What’s the analyte?
This is all I could find:
I hope it pans out. Screening tests that are effective at catching a disease early enough to make a difference, and also being able to identify correctly those who don’t have the disease (thus avoiding painful and somewhat risky procedures) are hard to come by.
QtM, who just lost a patient to canc of the panc 2 weeks ago.
And screws the kid out of his patent at the same time.
Thanks. I wish they would be a little bit more specific, as “an abnormal protein” could mean just about anything. I certainly hope he’s onto something!
At a guess, your name is the answer.
It’s not *quite *accurate to say that pancreatic cancer killed Jobs. Yes, he had pancreatic cancer, but he had a much rarer and much more curable variety–he would probably still be here today (and quite likely cancer-free) if he hadn’t taken a big chunk of time of chasing untried “natural” cures and just gone for the treatments his doctors suggested.
So yeah, while he technically did die of pancreatic cancer, it wasn’t because he got something that had basically no hope of a cure.
I agree with you, though, that having a screening test for the deadlier variety would be amazing, and hopefully help a lot of people catch it before it’s beyond treatment.
I wonder if Intel will have rights to the patent.
CNN interview with kid. Sounds like he will hold the patent, possibly with Johns Hopkins.
StG