Background
Research
How You Can Help
All About Prostate Cancer

Background

Prostate cancer is the most common male malignancy in the United States: it is estimated that 240,890 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in 2011 alone. Over the past 25 years, dramatic improvements have been made in patient survival of this disease; in fact, the 5-year survival rate has increased from 69% to 99.6%. However, once the cancer has spread, or "metastasized," the disease is fatal. Currently, no effective treatment is currently available. That is why prostate cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer death in American males, and an estimated 33,720 patients will lose their battle to the disease in 2011, dying predominantly from metastatic prostate cancer.

Patients with late stage prostate cancer may benefit from hormone therapy (androgen ablation), which removes the main source of fuel to tumor growth by suppressing male hormones (androgens). Unfortunately, patients ultimately become non-responsive to this treatment after a few years, resulting in uncontrolled disease status and patient death. New and more effective treatments must be developed quickly to address this critical issue.

Research

NFCR is currently supporting scientists whose research is focused on unraveling the root causes of prostate cancer metastasis and developing new and effective treatment for patients with metastatic prostate cancer.  Here are some highlights:

NFCR Project Director Paul B. Fisher, M.Ph., Ph.D.
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, VA

NFCR Project Director Paul B. Fisher, M.Ph., Ph.D., has developed an innovative gene therapy to treat prostate cancer - especially metastatic prostate cancer, which aff ects 60% of patients. This new therapeutic is a genetically reprogrammed virus, called "Cancer Terminator Virus" (CTV). CTV is designed to specifi cally infect tumor cells and destroy them by replicating itself within the cells. Th e secret of restricted tumor targeting lies in a special control system employed in CTV. Dr. Fisher's therapeutic virus employs a special gene element he discovered earlier which can only turn on virus replication in tumor cells, but not in normal cells. Once turned on, the virus copies itself inside a tumor cell and eventually causes cell death. On the other hand, the normal cells are prevented from being harmed because CTV can not replicate in them. This smart control system ensures that this small biological killing machine only fi res on tumor cells.

To further improve its killing eff ects, Dr. Fisher's team made the virus capable of producing another tumor-killing molecule, interferon gamma (IFNγ), when replicating in the tumor cells. IFNγ, a natural product of our immune system, can directly kill tumor cells as well as indirectly by eliciting immune responses. Intriguingly, both the viruses and IFNγ generated by them go and seek out tumor cells, whether localized or metastatic, and destroy them, without harming normal healthy cells in the body. This unique feature could make it especially useful for patients whose prostate cancer has already metastasized.

Currently, with NFCR support, Dr. Fisher is further testing CTV in prostate cancer cell lines and tumor models to confi rm its eff ects and observe potential side eff ects. In fact, this novel gene therapy has been tested in pancreatic cancer cells and tumor models and the results are very encouraging. If tests in the laboratory run well, CTV may soon be used in clinical studies and provide a more effective treatment to late stage prostate cancer patients. This new "lethal weapon" could be especially encouraging to patients whose prostate cancer has stopped responding to other treatments.

How You Can Help

These research projects hold great promise for yielding more effective therapies for prostate cancer. With more funding, however, they could ramp up their efforts and accelerate progress to save more lives! When you donate to NFCR, your dollars help our scientists accomplish many important research goals aimed at developing better cancer treatment and prevention strategies. Click here to learn more.

All About Prostate Cancer