| Our driving focus
is a simple one—moving our research discoveries to the patient's
bedside, and turning our clinical observations into problems to
be solved in the laboratory. We used to call this "bench-to-bedside"
investigation. Now we call it "translational research."
This issue of Discovery shows you some of our translational research
in action.
For example:
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A better cancer predictor:
A new blood test, developed in the laboratory of Robert H. Getzenberg,
our Research Director, may not only be better than the PSA test;
it also has the potential to help predict how aggressive a man's
prostate cancer is. We are very excited about this new blood
test, called EPCA-2 (Early Prostate Cancer Antigen), and the
great promise it has already shown.
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Expectant management with
curative intent: Years of research by Breakthrough: New Prostate
Cancer Test is More Specific than PSA H. Ballentine Carter have
helped define an entire segment of men with prostate cancer—
men with low-volume, low-risk disease. Now, Drs. Carter and
Christopher Warlick, in a study recently reported in the Journal
of the National Cancer Institute, have shown that not all of
these men need to rush into treatment right away. In fact, when
these men are carefully followed, delaying prostate cancer surgery
does not appear to compromise their ability to be cured.
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The "Lance Armstrong"
effect: An intriguing hypothesis, recently published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by three
of our top investigators here at the Brady—Don Coffey,
Robert Getzenberg, and Ted DeWeese —suggests that heat
treatment may soon make prostate cancer cells more susceptible
to treatments that we already have.
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Genes and prostate cancer:
It is has become very clear, primarily through research performed
here by Bill Isaacs and Patrick Walsh, that there are many inherited
components that, along with environmental factors, largely determine
which men will develop prostate cancer. It is also clear that
no single gene or piece of DNA is responsible for this inherited
risk. For the first time, Dr. Isaacs' group has demonstrated
systematically the identification of many genes which may increase
the risk for prostate cancer and could potentially be inherited
along family lines. We are extremely excited about the unprecedented
insight into the genetic mechanisms responsible for prostate
cancer that these efforts will yield. So much is happening here,
every day— much more than we can cover in just these few
pages. As always, all of our research is dedicated to you, our
patients, and your families.
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