I thought that I would share the testimony I delivered at the recent FDA hearing on Satraplatin:
My name is Joel T. Nowak. I am here today as a consumer and as a representative of the advocacy and educational group Malecare.
Neither I, nor any member of my family have any financial interest nor received any support from the applicant.
In the interest of fair disclosure, I do wish to add to the record that my primary oncologist is Dr. Daniel Petrylak, who is one of the researchers involved in these clinical trials.
Unfortunately, I am very familiar with metastatic disease and its effects on the patients, their families and society.
The 300 family synagogue to which I belong has, in the past six months alone, mourned the cancer related deaths of five men my age — all husbands and fathers, productive in their careers and active in the community.
In the past two years, I have lost my mother to lung cancer, my father-in-law to colon cancer, my sister-in-law to breast cancer and my best friend to kidney cancer.
Although I am only 56 years old, I am a three-time cancer survivor. I have been diagnosed and treated for thyroid, prostate and kidney cancer.
However, today I am here to discuss my experience with advanced prostate cancer. I was initially diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in August of 2001 and had a Laparoscopic Prostatectomy October. Then, in December of 2005, I had a reoccurrence. As everyone here today knows, recurrent prostates cancer is not a curable disease, but it can become a treatable disease if we are allowed to have the drugs we so desperately need.
Those of us who suffer with advanced prostate cancer have already gone through a mill of barbaric treatments. We have had our prostates removed or radiated, often leaving us with varying degrees of incontinence and impotence.
Despite the primary treatment, 30 percent of us will have a recurrence and develop advanced prostate cancer.
According to the National Cancer Institute, the expected mortality rate for Advanced Prostate Cancer is over 50% in 36 months from diagnosis.
This signals the beginning of our clock’s final countdown, the countdown ending in our ultimate death.
Herein lies my personal predicament. I wa