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2023 Bayer-PCF Health Equity Research Award

Molecular Evaluation of Prostate Saturation and Progression Biopsies for Risk Assessment and Early Intervention

Principal Investigator: Nallasivam Palanisamy, PhD, MSc (Henry Ford Health System)

Young Investigator: Wei Zhao, MD, PhD (Henry Ford Health)

Co-Investigators: Pin Li, PhD (Henry Ford Health), Nilesh Gupta, MD (Henry Ford Health),  Daniel Isaac, DO, MSc (Michigan State University), Craig Rogers, MD (Henry Ford Health)

Description:

  • Prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates are disparately higher among Black patients compared with White patients. Understanding the factors that contribute to these disparities and developing improved methods to diagnose and treat Black patients is critical to reducing prostate cancer health disparities.
  • Nallasivam Palanisamy and team as well as others have previously observed significant differences in the expression of oncogenic factors such as ERG, SPINK1, ETV1 and ETV4 in localized prostate cancers from Black vs. White patients, that associate with clinical outcomes. Palanisamy and team hypothesize that these factors may be useful as prognostic markers that can be incorporated into clinical risk stratification models, to improve personalized therapy recommendations in patients with newly diagnosed, localized prostate cancer.
  • In this project, the team will study saturation biopsy samples to determine molecular heterogeneity in spatially distinct tumors and estimate the prevalence of ERG, SPINK1, ETV1, ETV4, and PTEN molecular markers in prostate cancers from Black vs. White patients.
  • Longitudinal biopsy samples from patients who had two or more biopsies will also be evaluated to understand tumor clonal evolution and the role of molecular markers in disease progression.
  • If successful, this project will help to unravel prostate cancer’s genetic and molecular heterogeneity from a racial disparity perspective and its impact on disease progression and risk assessment.

What this means to patients: Prostate cancer incidence and mortality is disparately higher in Black patients, but the contributing factors as well as optimal patient management strategies remain unclear.  Dr. Palanisamy and team will perform in-depth molecular assessments of localized tumor samples from Black vs. White patients, to understand racial differences in prostate cancer molecular biology and disease progression. This may ultimately lead to improved biomarker-based prostate cancer risk assessment tools for Black patients, that will improve individualized patient management strategies and reduce disparities in health outcomes.