Renowned professional skateboarder Tony Hawk has launched a lung cancer awareness campaign in partnership with Exact Sciences Corp (NASDAQ: EXAS) (FRA: EXK).
The American icon, famous for the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater video game series and being the first person to land the 900 aerial spin, got his advocacy inspiration from the loss of a close family member. Frank Hawk, his father, was diagnosed with the disease in 1995 and only survived for six months afterward. Frank never had the chance to meet three out of four of Tony’s kids or his grandchild.
“He passed away at home, and we had to see him wither away,” Tony said in an interview with Men’s Journal last week “It was terrible.”
Through the partnership, Tony is advocating for the Cancerguard multi-cancer test developed by Exact. It is a blood biopsy that screens for more than 50 types and subtypes of the disease. These include lung and bronchus, stomach, breast, kidney, prostate and many others.
The skateboarding icon explained that his dad was not a smoker and didn’t have a high risk of contracting the disease. In the interview, he highlighted how understanding that non-smokers can still die from lung cancer is his primary reason for wanting to spread awareness.
Cancerguard is meant to serve as a complementary testing method for standard cancer screening measures. It takes two weeks to get results after the blood draw. Tony took the test earlier this month and is still waiting on his results.
“I’m thankful to live in this age of modern medicine, that I can get the opportunity to take a test like this,” he told USA Today.
“It feels like a fun side quest [aside from shredding on my skateboard] and if I can raise awareness to this type of screening, that’s all the better,” Hawk also said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
Exact Sciences is one of a handful of companies that offer multi-cancer tests. The Galleri blood draw created by Grail Inc (NASDAQ: GRAL), Guardant Health Inc‘s (NASDAQ: GH) (FRA: 5GH) Shield screening tool and a multi-cancer breath analysis test being developed by Owlstone Medical are also notable.
In the breath testing field and for lung cancer detection specifically, the OneBreath system from Breath Diagnostics has been attracting attention in the healthcare sector. Unlike Cancerguard, this screening tool is capable of providing results in a mere 10 minutes.
Read more: Breath Diagnostics leaders promote their mission at Miami investment conference
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