The National Institute of Health granted the University Health System a six million dollar grant for prostate cancer research Monday.
The five-year grant will be used toward the ultimate goal of preventing the spread of cancerous tumors.
"The goal of the project is to gain a better understanding of how cancer is configured that allows it to spread through the system, which will help us develop drugs to block the spread," Urology Prof. Dan Theodorescu said.
Though there are a few drugs on the market which can prolong survival by a few months, medical treatment to contain the cancer permanently is yet to be found, Theodorescu said.
Currently incurable, prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of death in men. Individuals who are African-American, have a family history of the disease in his/her family or have a high-fat diet are at risk of developing prostate cancer.
The grant, which will become official Oct. 1, took over two years to process.
"These [grants] are competitive," said Sarah Parsons, associate director for basic research at the cancer center. "[They are] based on the quality of science, based on the potential for adding new information, for improvement in the treatment of prostate cancer."
There are a number of scientific projects under the grant, each of which examines a different aspect of prostate cancer, said Thomas Parsons, a cancer biologist at the University.
"I am interested in creating mouse models for prostate cancer [using] genetically modified mice," Parsons said.
The team is comprised of doctors and experts from the University's departments of pathology, public health sciences, microbiology, medicine and urology. The University Cell Signaling Center, Cancer Center and Paul Mellon Prostate Cancer Institute also participate.
With the project already underway, the research team hopes to help alleviate the public health problem of prostate cancer.
"For the population as a whole, we hope that it will help prostate treatment," Sarah Parsons said. "We're very optimistic."
The American Cancer Society estimates 232,900 new cases of prostate cancer will arise in the United States this year, 30,350 of which are expected to be fatal.
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