Mark Webber and Motorsport Australia have lent their support to a new initiative as part of prostate cancer awareness month.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in Australian men and has affected a number of prominent figures in motorsport this year alone.
Neil Crompton is one of them, the racer-turned-commentator recovering from a recent operation, while John Bowe completed radiation treatment for the ailment in March.
Just this week, Dick Johnson Racing made a fresh push to raise awareness of the Prostate Cancer Foundation and The Long Run, which team CEO Ryan Story will be partaking in this month.
Now, Motorsport Australia has announced a partnership with artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostics company Maxwell Plus to help members address prostate health.
“This is an important area for Motorsport Australia, given many of our members and employees are in the risk category,” said Motorsport Australia CEO Eugene Arocca.
“While this is a disease that directly affects men, we know that there are many of our female members who this campaign will apply to, given they will have fathers, brothers, friends or other relatives who might be at risk.
“We are excited to be able to help our members take control of their health, during a difficult time and hopefully help save lives.”
Maxwell Plus claims to be able to detect 40 percent more prostate cancers with 50 percent fewer invasive, unnecessary biopsies.
The service may be accessed online, at which point participants can determine if they are eligible for testing, and a discount code is available to Motorsport Australia members.
Webber has used Maxwell Plus, and said, “It was simple, quick and painless. All I needed was the blood test and now I have complete peace of mind.”
Maxwell Plus co-founder Dr Elliot Smith explained, “The Al analyses existing patients’ PSA tests, MRls and clinical parameters searching for complex trends that humans may not be able to see and compares each man’s results to a database of over 250,000 prostate cancer cases.
“The information is presented to expert clinicians who confirm the results and report these findings to the patient.
“We look forward to working with Motorsport Australia and are excited to help their members take control of their health.”
According to Maxwell Plus chief medical officer Dr Peter Swindle, almost half of the diagnoses the service has made would have been missed by conventional processes.
“Our service is finding prostate cancer in men five years younger, at lower PSAs and with fewer unnecessary biopsies,” said Dr Swindle.
“Nearly 40 per cent of the men we have diagnosed with prostate cancer would have been completely missed by the current guidelines.”
Around 3000 Australians die from prostate cancer each year but, if detected early, the survival rate is 98 percent.
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