15-Year-Old Puts Cancer Industry To Shame

[Editor’s Note: You might have already seen this in mainstream, but this kid is still a marvel and this information needs to stay in the public eye. We MUST continue to demand better testing for ourselves and our loved ones.]

Jack Andraka, a 15 year-old boy from Crownsville, Maryland, watched a beloved family friend (who was like an uncle) die of pancreatic cancer. But instead of just accepting that people die from this horrible disease, he got to work trying to figure out a better testing method to detect early stage, pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic Cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death and it takes 34,000 lives a year. Because the disease is normally detected in the later stages and has a low survival rate after diagnosis, his new test changes everything.

Our current testing methods are:

  • 60 years old
  • cost on average $800
  • miss 30% of all pancreatic cancers.

However, in contrast, the test Jack developed is:

  • 168 times faster (takes 5 minutes)
  • 26,000 times less expensive (costs three cents)
  • 400 times more sensitive than the current standard of detection (is 100% accurate)

Jack used Google and Wikipedia as his primary research tools and these online resources are available to almost everyone on the plant with an internet connection. Wonder if cancer researchers have that access as well?

Go Jack. Well done sir, well done.

Source: My Health Maven