The CPDR mission is fulfilled primarily through its three principal programs – the Clinical Research Program, the Basic Science Research Program and the Multicenter National Prostate Cancer Database – and through a robust education and training program that operates out of its Headquarters location, the Clinical Research Center, and the original laboratories at USUHS. CPDR is also committed to patient outreach, primarily through its affiliation with the WRAMC US TOO! organization and through a heavy schedule of health fairs in which it participates.

To get started, find your selected interest to the right, or use the blue navigation bar above.

2009 Cancer Statistics  Source: American Cancer Society

2009 State-by-State CaP Statistics  Source: Zerocancer.org

> NEWS

CPDR Visiting Professor Seminar

Date: Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Time: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location: CPDR, Rockville, MD

Arun Sreekumar, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
MCG Cancer Center and Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Medical College of Georgia
Augusta, Georgia

Presenting: "Metabolomic Profiling of Prostate Cancer Progression "

Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related death in men in the western world and afflicts one out of nine men over the age of 65. To better understand the complex molecular events that characterize prostate cancer initiation, unregulated growth, invasion, and metastasis, it is important to delineate the distinct sets of genes, proteins, and metabolites that dictate its progression from precursor lesion, to localized disease, and subsequent metastasis. Although gene and protein expression have been extensively profiled in human tumors, little is known about the global metabolomic alterations that characterize neoplastic progression. Using a combination of high throughput liquid and gas chromatography-based mass spectrometry, we profiled more than 1126 metabolites across 262 clinical samples related to prostate cancer (tissue, urine, and plasma). These unbiased metabolomic profiles were able to distinguish benign prostate, clinically localized prostate cancer, and metastatic disease. Prostate cancer progression was characterized by alterations in amino acid metabolism and methylation potential. Sarcosine, an N-methyl derivative of the amino acid glycine, was identified as a differential metabolite that was highly elevated during prostate cancer progression to metastasis and can be detected non-invasively in urine. Sarcosine levels were also elevated in invasive prostate cancer cell lines relative to benign prostate epithelial cells. Knockdown of glycine-N-methyl transferase (GNMT), the enzyme that generates sarcosine from glycine, attenuated prostate cancer invasion. Addition of exogenous sarcosine or knockdown of the enzyme that leads to sarcosine degradation, sarcosine dehydrogenase (SARDH), induced an invasive phenotype in benign prostate epithelial cells. Androgen receptor and the ERG gene fusion product coordinately regulate components of the sarcosine pathway. Taken together, we profiled the metabolomic alterations of prostate cancer progression revealing sarcosine as a potentially important metabolic intermediary of cancer cell invasion and aggressivity.

CPDR Saturday Distiguished Visiting Professor

Date: August 14, 2010
Time: 9:00-10:30 am (continental breakfast 8:30-9:00 am)
Location: CPDR, Rockville, MD

Donald S. Coffey, Ph.D., D.SC.
The Catherine Iola and J. Smith Michael Distinguished Professor of Urology
Professor of Oncology
Professor of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences
Professor of Pathology
Principal Professional Staff of the JHU Applied Physics Lab
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions

Presenting: "A FOCUS ON PROSTATE CANCER IN 2010: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE"

Donald S. Coffey, Ph.D. is a Professor of Urology, Oncology, Pathology and Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. A prominent Urological scientist, Dr. Coffey was appointed as The Catherine Iola and J. Smith Michael Distinguished Professor of Urology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Coffey is also a member of the Principal Professional Staff at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He served as Director of the Research Laboratories in the Department of Urology for thirty-two years from 1972-2004. Dr. Coffey received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1964. He is Past-President of the American Association for Cancer Research and also The Society for Basic Urologic Research. For 19 years Dr. Coffey served as a member of the National Prostatic Cancer Program of the National Cancer Institute and served as National chairperson from 1984-1988. He has received the Robert Edwards Award from The Tenovus Institute, both the Fuller Award and Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Urological Association, the Society of International Urology-Yamanouchi Research Award, and a 2001 American Cancer Society Distinguished Service Award. He is an Honorary Member of the AOA. Dr. Coffey is also the recipient of two Merit Awards from the National Institutes of Health. In 2006 he was appointed to the National Cancer Advisory Board. He has published more than 250 research publications.

Scientists develop highly specific ERG monoclonal antibody for detecting common oncogenic alterations in prostate cancer.

June 29, 2010

Bethesda, Maryland--Researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) Center for Prostate Disease Research (CPDR), in collaboration with investigators at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and Walter Reed Army Medical Center have developed a highly specific assay for the detection of ERG oncoprotein that is regulated by prevalent gene fusions present in over half of all prostate cancers. These findings are reported in the advanced online publication of Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases (Nature Publishing Group, June 29), “ERG oncoprotein expression in prostate cancer: clonal progression of ERG-positive tumor cells and potential for ERG-based stratification.”

ERG Oncoprotein

“We are excited about the potential of streamlining the detection of ERG oncoprotein in clinical specimens”

-- Dr. Shiv Srivastava, CPDR Scientific Director

PCAN Journal Article

USU News Release