Dr. Richard Ablin was the person that discovered an antigen specific to the Prostate in 1970.  His discovery had nothing to do with cancer, simply an antigen specific to the Prostate.  His original name for his discovery?  The Prostate Specific Antigen, PSA for short.  Pretty snappy, right!  Dr. Ablin’s discovery has been one of the most misunderstood, and perhaps, misused discoveries in men’s health history.  Much more about that later, but let’s first discuss Dr. Ablin.

Dr. Richard J. Ablin PhD DSc (hon), Dr hc Professor, Pathology – (Research Scholar Track)Research Professor, BIO5 Institute.

  Dr. Ablin graduated with his PhD from State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo in 1967.  He then did a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Microbiology and Immunology from 1968 to 1970 at SUNY at Buffalo School of Medicine.  Further Dr. Ablin was Board Certified in the following:  American Board of Clinical Immunology and Allergy, 1971, National Registry of Microbiologists of the American Academy of Microbiology, 1973 and American Society for Clinical Pathology Board of Registry, 2005.  Dr. Ablin also accumulated the following awards and Honors:  Gold Award, Magister in Cryosurgery, International Society of Cryosurgery, 2007, First Award for Scientific Excellence, The Haakon Ragde Foundation for Advanced Cancer Studies, 2007, Inaugural Recipient, Theresa Fund’s Educator of Excellence Award in Critical Research, 2009, Conference Guest of Honor, First National Prostate Cancer Conference: A Cry for Life! Tanzania 50 Plus Campaign, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 2009 and Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Buffalo (SUNY at Buffalo), 2010.  Obviously Dr. Ablin was a well respected and accomplished gentleman.  (The above paragraph is from the web site, www.medicine.arizona.edu/personal/richard-j-ablin-phd-dsc-hon-dr-hc).

Dr. Ablin, with the assistance of Ronald Piana wrote a must read book for anyone interested in Prostate conditions or men’s health.  I will find where it can be purchased and link to it on the web site. The book is called, The Great Prostate Hoax, “HOW BIG MEDICINE HIJACKED THE PSA TEST AND CAUSED A PUBLIC HEALTH DISASATER, copyright, Richard J. Ablin and Ronald Piana, 2014 by Palgrave Macmillan a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010.

Why is Dr. Ablin and his discovery important to each man in the world and why is it so misused and misunderstood?  From the jacket of Dr. Ablin’s book:  Every year, more than a million men undergo painful needle biopsies for prostate cancer, and upwards of 100,000 have radical prostatectomies, often resulting in crippling side effects such as incontinence, impotence, and psychological trauma.  But the shocking fact is that most of these men would have never died of this common form of cancer, which frequently grows so slowly that it never even leaves the prostate.  How did we get to a point where so many unnecessary tests and surgeries are being done?

This is the shocking story of how the ill-use of a prostate cancer test has systematically ruined the lives of millions of American men and robbed our health system of precious resources-from the scientist behind the key discovery that led to the test. 

In this inside look at the healthcare industry, Dr. Richard J. Ablin exposes how the discovery he made in 1970 of a Prostate specific antigen (PSA) was co-opted by the pharmaceutical industry into a multi-billion-dollar business.  He reveals that his discovery of PSA was never meant to be used for screening prostate cancer; nonetheless, the test was patented and eventually approved by the FDA in 1994.  For the first time, both doctors and victims are beginning to speak out against the harm caused by this test and call for the search for a true Prostate cancer-specific marker.  The Great Prostate Cancer Hoax raises provocative questions about the nature of our health care an d regulatory systems and the drastic human consequences of manipulating science for personal and financial gain.

That is the jacket of Dr. Ablin’s great book and it should call anyone reading this post to action if for no other reason than to be educated!  Remember the manipulation and dishonesty of the recent COVID nightmare?  Dr. Ablin shows that where money and fame are involved, the health or you and I are way down the list of priorities!  In my next post I am going to dig deeper in Dr. Ablin’s book to look at how the PSA “test” was patented and “approved” by the FDA!!  Before we can dig into where we are now with Prostate health we have to learn about the history and Dr. Ablin is a great lecturer in this history!!