Cancer Groups Award $10 Million to Develop Personalized Prostate Cancer Treatments

Stand Up to Cancer, the Prostate Cancer Foundation, and the American Association for Cancer Research have announced a three-year, $10 million grant in support of a collaborative project that aims to develop personalized treatments for advanced prostate cancer.

The grant will support a seven-center project to address therapeutic interventions for advanced prostate cancer, with special emphasis on metastatic disease. Led by Arul M. Chinnaiyan of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center and Charles L. Sawyers of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the team will draw on research centers in Ann Arbor, New York, Boston, Seattle, and London.

According to PCF, the diversity of genetic aberrations found in prostate cancer suggests that treatment decisions in the future will require a personalized or precision approach — matching treatment to specific characteristics of a tumor. The team of researchers will work to identify predictors of why some patients respond to various therapies through a multi-institutional study that evaluates the prostate cancer genomes of patients enrolled in four clinical trials, participating in evaluations of novel drugs for castration-resistant prostate cancer, or beginning treatment with approved drugs such as abiraterone.

"Utilizing this dream team grant, we will be able to bring together great scientists and clinicians from around the world to join in the fight against metastatic prostate cancer," said Chinnaiyan. "We hope this unique model of research will lead to patient benefit in the short term."

“Stand Up to Cancer and Prostate Cancer Foundation Announce New 'Dream Team'.” Prostate Cancer Foundation Press Release 4/01/12.

Primary Subject: Health
Secondary Subject(s): Medical Research
Location(s): National

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