Jim, a 57-year-old Boston businessman, climbs up on an examining room table at Brigham and Women's Hospital for a procedure that's high on most men's list of dreads: a prostate biopsy.
A doctor will push an eight-inch ultrasound wand into his backside, then insert a spring-loaded gun that shoots a dozen needles through the rectum into Jim's prostate gland. Each needle grabs a tiny piece of tissue that will be examined for evidence of cancer.