Sample Chapter
Chapter 1: What Are Trials?
I enjoyed athletics from my youngest days and played competitive basketball into my late thirties. Other than bumps, bruises, and sprains, I can’t remember health problems of any kind. In my forties, yearly visits to Mayo Clinic were simply routine. At the end of my regular checkup in the fall of 2008 the doctor added these words:
"Your PSA (prostate-specific antigen) count has gone up again."
A review of the past four years revealed a pattern that finally got some- one’s attention. My count had gone from 1.3 to 1.8 to 2.2, then 2.7 and now was 3.1. Counts do fluctuate in men my age, but healthy men tend to have very low PSA counts. The regularity of this pattern had seemed significant to me, and I remember wishing the doctor had made a bigger deal about these counts earlier. But I also knew that PSA counts aren’t always related to cancer, but can indicate other, less ominous health issues like enlarged prostate.
My doctor was now saying, “This is a problem, we’ve got to check it out further.”
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