Click thumbnail to see a sample.

Sometimes it is useful to see a graphical picture of your medical history, correlating in time the history of your PSA and other data with your tests and treatments.  It allows you and others to see the relationship between treatments and their effects.  You can discuss the chart with your doctor.

You can see sample graphs at http://members.cox.net/jfistere/FistereGraph.htm and http://www.762betula.net/pcdigest/.

MultiGraph charting of your data is a service provided at no charge by the Prostate Cancer Research and Education Foundation.  To get a graph, you need to send in your data by email to JFistere@cox.net.  The MultiGraph program reads your data and produces the graph.

Your data should be in chronological format.  For any date on which something happened, or you have test results, enter the date, followed by all of the items associated with that date.  (If you already have your data in a series of tables, that works too.  Contact JFistere for more info.)

Include diagnostic test results, such as DREs, imaging tests, etc., procedures such as RP, seed implantation, etc, and other events with a single date.

Include the start and stop dates of treatments such as Lupron, Proscar, dietary and lifestyle changes, X-Ray treatments, etc.

Here's a sample of a few entries as you might send them in.  You can include as much descriptive text as you like.  When I receive your file, I will add a few codes to help MultiGraph find your data.

2/2/98    PSA 4.1    DRE, nodules detected  TrusBx positive, three cores. Gleason: 4+3=7  Clinical stage, T2B,   Prostate volume: 45 cc.
3/2/98   PSA  4.5
3/5/98   PAP 23
4/2/98  Bone scan, negative
4/13/98   Started Lupron, started Proscar
4/1598   Started dietary changes....
6/13/98  ProstaScint, negative  PSA <0.05  7/15/98 PSA 0.1  PAP 46   8/20/98  PSA 0.9
2/3/99   Stopped Lupron  PSA 0.06
etc.  etc

You can use just about any date format you like, such as 15 Sep 98, 98/3/24, or 5/22/35.

Please copy and paste the following header into the beginning of your file. All fields except Name:, EMail:, and DOB: are optional.  Don't modify any of the keywords below.

Identification:
Date:
Name:
Address:
Line2:
City:
State:
ZIP:
Country:
DayPhone:
EvePhone:
FAX:
EMail:
DOB:       // date of birth
DiagnosisDate:

DIGEST:
Chart: Med PSA    // and any other variables to be charted]

// These optional items can appear anywhere in your digest, followed by the data:

Prostate Volume: or PV:
Clinical Stage: or CS:
Gleason:
Ploidy:
Partin:
Narayan:

If you have several variables to plot, you can list them in your narrative as shown above or you can put them in a table as follows:

Table:     PSA     PAP      T      Chol      PSA2
22 May 98   4.5     --     200      180
15 Jun 98   4.0
23 Jul 98   3.5     7.2
26 Aug 98   3.0     --      --      ---       18

Be sure to use dashes to indicate missing values before other values.  You can have more than one chart, with different variables plotted together on each chart.  Unless you tell me otherwise, I will give you one chart with all variable plotted together, plus one with your PSA alone.

Your digest can be quite terse, with only your medical data to be plotted, or in narrative form, with as much explanatory information as you like.

When you receive your first graph, you will also receive some information that will help you understand how MultiGraph works, and what you do to get updates efficiently.  Here's a preview of those instructions.

The main thing is don't worry about format details, just send in a file with your data!

Cheers,
John Fistere, Executive Director
Prostate Cancer Research and Education Foundation
5480 Baltimore Drive, Suite 202
La Mesa, CA   91942
619/461-8181
Fax: 619/461-6682