Principal Investigators: Peter Nelson, MD (University of Washington), Elisabeth Heath, MD (Wayne State University/Karmanos Cancer Center)

Co-Investigators: Bruce Montgomery, MD (Seattle Puget Sound VA/University of Washington), Jay Shendure MD, PhD (University of Washington), Ivana Bozic, PhD (University of Washington), Gavin Ha, PhD (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center), Larry True, MD (University of Washington), Colm Morrissey, PhD (University of Washington), Wael Sakr, MD (Wayne State University/Karmanos Cancer Center),  Navonil De Sarkar, PhD (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)

Project Title: PC-REACTR: A Multidimensional Tumor Atlas to Overcome Prostate Cancer Therapy Resistance

Description: 

• Though advances have been made in extending the survival of men with metastatic prostate cancer, this disease remains incurable as resistance to current therapies and disease progression inevitably occurs. In order to devise new treatment strategies that will avoid or overcome treatment resistance and result in long-term tumor control, it is necessary to have a better understanding of the variability and complexity of advanced prostate cancer.
• Dr. Peter Nelson and team will create a multidimensional tumor atlas to investigate tumor biology and predict improved treatment combinations that can overcome treatment resistance.
• A multidimensional tumor atlas will be created that will contain data on genomic alterations, gene expression, and imaging of the tumor microenvironment over time in patients treated with standard of care and emerging therapeutics for advanced prostate cancer. This atlas will be made available as an open-access resource for the scientific community.
• This “4-D” information will be used in mathematical models to identify the mechanisms by which prostate cancer becomes drug-resistant, and to predict new treatment approaches that can overcome resistance.
• These models will be used to design clinical trials directed toward overcoming therapy resistance for standard and experimental treatment modalities.
• This project will create a valuable data resource for the scientific community and will result in improved understanding of prostate cancer biology, treatment resistance, and the identification of new improved treatment strategies.

What this means to patients:  Advanced prostate cancer is an incurable disease, for which new treatment strategies are urgently needed.  Dr. Nelson and team will create a multidimensional prostate cancer databank as a resource for the research community and will identify the mechanisms by which prostate cancer becomes drug-resistant and propose clinical trials to test treatment strategies designed to overcome drug resistance.