Newswise — The National Cancer Institute has awarded a five-year, $7.5 million Program Project Grant to Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) for translational research on the prevention of prostate cancer. Clement Ip, PhD, Distinguished Member and Head of Cancer Chemoprevention at RPCI, is the principal investigator.
The ultimate goal of the funded research is to develop a novel strategy to manage the disease at an early stage to prevent it from becoming clinically relevant. Toward that end, researchers will pursue three highly integrated projects based on suppressing androgen signal transduction " a key element in the development of prostate cancer " at two different steps simultaneously by using finasteride to inhibit the formation of dihydrotestosterone and selenium to reduce the expression of androgen receptor (AR).
Project 1, led by Dr. Ip, will focus on delineating how finasteride and selenium work together to alter certain molecular events controlling the proliferation of prostate cancer cells. Special emphasis will be placed on functional analysis of key targets and pathways responsible for the induction of cell cycle arrest and cell death following treatment with finasteride and selenium.
Project 2, led by Young-Mee Park, PhD, will investigate the mechanism of hypoxia and peroxiredoxin-1 (Prx1) stimulation of AR signaling. Activation of AR is known to be modulated by other factors beyond hormone binding (e.g. hypoxia or insufficient oxygen). Prx1, which is elevated in prostate cancer, plays an important role in mediating this effect. A major objective of the research is focused on characterizing the mechanism of Prx1 in enhancing AR function, and defining the effect of Prx1 on finasteride/selenium suppression of AR signaling.
Project 3, led by James Marshall, PhD, will be a short-term intervention clinical trial based on the findings of Projects 1 and 2. The primary objective will be to verify the effect of finasteride and selenium on androgen target gene expression and the induction of cell death in prostate tissue samples obtained from pre-prostatectomy patients. A secondary objective is to determine whether a high level of Prx1 diminishes the sensitivity of finasteride and selenium.
Roswell Park Cancer Institute, founded in 1898, is the nation's first cancer research, treatment and education center and is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Upstate New York. RPCI is a member of the prestigious National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of the nation's leading cancer centers. Roswell Park has affiliate sites and collaborative programs in New York, Pennsylvania, and in China. For more information, visit RPCI's website at http://www.roswellpark.org, call 1-877-ASK-RPCI (1-877-275-7724) or e-mail [email protected].
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