CoE-Prostate Cancer Center of Excellence (USUHS)
Abstract
The Prostate Cancer Center of Excellence is at the forefront of “cutting-edge” translational, clinical, and epidemiologic prostate cancer research. The emphasis is on improving prevention, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of prostate cancer involving new modalities such as MRI guided biopsy, gene-based biomarkers, and precision medicine strategies targeting cancer-causing alterations in prostate cancer. The CoE multi-center database (WRNMMC, NMCSD, BAMC, MAMC, TAMC) is a unique programmatic resource, enrolling over 30,500 DoD health care beneficiaries with longitudinal follow up to 30 years. Research from the Prostate CoE highlights genetic and genomic racial/ethnic differences, discovery of novel prognostic markers, treatment outcomes, and new insights into quality of life. The Prostate CoE’s health disparity research focus has uniquely benefited from studying prostate cancer patients in the DoD with high representation of African American men, in an equal-access military health care system. The CoE has been credited for the discovery of the frequent overexpression of the most common prostate cancer driver gene, ERG, the development of urine and tissue assays to detect ERG; the discovery of tumor genomic differences between African American and Caucasian American patients; and the discovery of inherited gene mutations that drive aggressive prostate cancers of African American men. The Prostate CoE’s state-of-the-art research infrastructure and framework is providing education and training for over 100 next generation physicians, scientists, medical and graduate students within DoD medical institutions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2024
- Source ID
- a3a02774b5834fdced9f84a453665dd2