Team receives $7.4M to study spread of prostate cancer to bones

Eight in 10 men afflicted with advanced prostate cancer will face the spread of cancer to their bones—called bone metastasis—and the prospect of debilitating pain, fractures, impaired movement and neurological complications.

Science has responded with little research to determine why the skeleton is the most likely target for the movement of prostate cancer, or what strategies might be developed to combat this route of disease progression.

But now, the National Cancer Institute's Prostate Cancer Progress Review Group has awarded a grant totaling $7.4 million for five years to a group of collaborators from U-M, led by principal investigator Dr. Evan Keller. The researchers will undertake four different research projects, each intended to define the cellular and molecular mechanisms that lead to prostate cancer skeletal metastases.

The researchers obtained the grant in part because of the novel partnership they have formed. Investigators with expertise in prostate cancer research—including Keller, associate professor of urology and pathology; Dr. Kenneth Pienta, professor of internal medicine and urology; and others from the Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC)—will team with experts in bone metabolism. They include Dr. Russel Taichman, associate professor of periodontics, prevention and geriatric dentistry; and Dr. Laurie McCauley, chair and professor of periodontics, prevention and geriatrics, both from the School of Dentistry. Each will lead one of the four projects.

The underlying theory driving the four projects also is novel. Keller's team asserts that there is "crosstalk" between the microenvironment of the human bone structure and that of prostate cancer cells that fosters the development of prostate cancer bone metastasis. In other words, there is some predisposition of prostate cancer to settle in bones that depends on a reciprocal interaction between the skeletal system and some specific property or properties of prostate cancer cells.

Keller hopes the expansive program will yield understanding of the interaction between prostate cancer cells and the skeletal structure, and that eventually the team's findings will translate into the clinical setting to help patients suffering from advanced prostate cancer.

"This program is truly a team effort, leveraging the best of basic and clinical science from multiple disciplines," Keller says. "I believe bringing this team together to focus on the serious problem of bone metastasis—which affects most men with advanced prostate cancer—will lead us to significant advances in our understanding of how these cancer cells spread. We hope our findings will guide us to new therapies to treat bone metastasis."

For more information on advanced prostate cancer, call the CCC's Cancer AnswerLine at (800) 865-1125.

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