(Describer) In an animation, streams of light collide to create a globe filled with water. Title: Science Nation. A man walks into a lobby.
(male narrator)
After years of keeping a wary
eye on troubling test results,
Marshall Blau was diagnosed
with prostate cancer.
He still had tough decisions
to make about treatment.
(male)
Am I gonna do anything or
continue with watchful waiting?
With more information, it might
have made that decision easier--
when to do it
and what to do.
(Describer) A doctor meets him in an exam room.
Marshall.
Hi, Dr. Wei.
(narrator)
To diagnose prostate cancer,
urologists like John Wei
use biomarkers: biochemical
signatures in blood,
urine, or tissue that suggest
the disease may be present.
Some are even genetic.
(male)
The problem for doctors
practicing medicine
is when and which tests
to use,
and what does it all mean.
(narrator)
With support from the
National Science Foundation,
engineer Brian Denton
and a team at the
University of Michigan are
developing computational models
to evaluate biomarkers.
They sift through vast
medical databases
and then use Denton's
engineering methods to assess
which are effective predictors
of prostate cancer.
We use large data sets
that contain information
about patients' test results,
biomarker test results,
biopsy results, whether or not
they had treatment.
(Describer) He draws a diagram on a whiteboard.
We use these to help define
data-driven assumptions
to build these models.
(Describer) People fill a wide sidewalk.
(narrator)
Traditionally,
doctors evaluate biomarkers
in clinical trials.
But those are expensive,
complicated,
and can take decades
to complete.
With new biomarkers being
identified regularly,
Denton says
computational modeling
is a quicker way to identify
the most promising ones.
(male)
The benefits are
we can do these tests rapidly
and we can test many different
ways of using biomarkers.
We can test thousands
of different protocols
to see which might be
the best.
(Describer) A doctor walks through a lab.
(narrator)
Pathologist Scott Tomlins
specializes in prostate cancer.
He and Doctor Wei are part
of the team helping Denton
develop and validate
the models, with the goal
of making better information
available to doctors
and patients when it is time
to make difficult choices.
My goal is to see more
being used
so we don't prescribe biopsies
where there's no cancer.
If patients have bad cancer,
we can diagnose it early.
(Describer) He looks through a microscope.
Engineering better ways
to evaluate cancer biomarkers;
a good model
for the future.
(Describer) A globe turns by the title.
For Science Nation,
I'm Miles O'Brien.
