Ian and Judy Blue, man living with nmCRPC, and his wife
Ian Blue is a 72-year-old man living with non-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. He was diagnosed in 2006 aged 58. At the time he was the Professor and Chair of a Nursing Programme at a university in Canada. As a professional nurse and academic, Ian has been able to access the relevant resources he needed to make informed decisions about his multiple treatment options. He recently participated in a global clinical trial and is a contributing author in a cancer journal article that gives a patient perspective on the importance of clinical trials and knowledge arising from them. Judy Blue is Ian’s partner and is a solid support to him. Both Ian and Judy try to live a normal life by maintaining open communication and pursuing hobbies such as cycling, walking, and socializing with family and friends.
Joel Nowak, MA, MSW, Co-Founder of Cancer ABCs and man living with prostate cancer
Joel T. Nowak, MA, MSW, is a cancer thriver and advocate who has been diagnosed and treated for five primary cancers, including advanced prostate cancer. He is a co-founder and CEO of Cancer ABCs, which has as its mission to facilitate tangible improvements in the lives of people who have been affected by cancer(s), by providing them and their loved ones the necessary survival tools, education, support and advocacy so that they can become responsible for and take an active role in their own medical care and wellbeing.
Joel also serves as a programmatic reviewer for the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program, is a member of the External Patient Review Board for the Herbert Irving Cancer Center at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, is on the Advisory Board for the Prostate Cancer Clinical Trial Consortium (PCCTC), where he is also an active member of the team developing the Ironman Study, and the DORA Trial. Joel was involved in the development of the Metastatic Prostate Cancer Project with the Broad Institute.
He has been involved in the development of clinical trial protocols for a number of trials actively being considered for funding. He has published numerous plain language documents, blogs, and papers for cancer patients and their caregivers.
Dr. Matthew R. Smith, Director of the Genitourinary Malignancies Program, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center
Matthew R. Smith, M.D., Ph.D. is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Genitourinary Malignancies Program at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. He received his MD and PhD degrees from Duke University School of Medicine. He completed Internal Medicine training at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a Medical Oncology fellowship at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and a postdoctoral fellowship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He has published extensively on the development of novel therapies, treatment and prevention of bone metastases, and survivorship in prostate cancer. He has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed articles on prostate cancer including manuscripts in New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cancer, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Clinical Cancer Research. His research has been supported by competitive grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Prostate Cancer Foundation.