Saving and Extending Lives of Men Diagnosed with Aggressive Prostate Cancer
Omar Mian, MD, PhD
2017 Pilot Award
3 key takeaways of the VeloSano funded research project:
Prostate cancer remains one of the leading causes of cancer related death in men. Patients diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer are often treated with a combination of radiation therapy and hormone therapy. Unfortunately, high-risk disease often progresses and spreads so better treatments are urgently needed.
Our VeloSano Pilot proposal builds on our work with colleagues at the Lerner Research Institute to investigate the biology of resistant prostate cancer, which directly impacts survival rates.
This project will study the deep oxygen starved cores of prostate tumors, which function as sanctuary sites for aggressive treatment-resistant cancer cells.
Impact of this project on patient care/treatment
If successful, this work will lead to new tests capable of detecting early resistance. In addition, we will evaluate a new class of targeted drugs capable of reaching and eliminating early resistant cancer cells hiding in the hypoxic core of aggressive tumors.
Men with locally advanced and low volume metastatic prostate cancer are typically treated using a combination of androgen deprivation therapy and tumor targeted radiotherapy.
Our recent work has exposed critical drivers of resistance which form the scientific premise of our proposal. This work will expand our understanding of therapeutic resistance in prostate cancer, will evaluate a highly innovative and paradigm shifting treatment strategy for a high-risk subset of patients and will form the basis for early phase clinical trials with near term potential to reduce suffering and death from lethal prostate cancer.
What does VeloSano cancer research funding mean to you?
This VeloSano Pilot Grant is so important to me because it brings us closer to fulfilling a fundamental promise to our patients – a promise that we will work tirelessly to end suffering and death from prostate cancer.
