Men with or without a family history of prostate cancer are invited to participate in this genetics study.
Men can enroll from any location in the US or the world. Forms and a blood kit will be sent at no cost to participants.
It is not necessary to come to Chicago to participate in this study. The purpose of this study is:
The study enrolls men with a family history of prostate cancer and men with other possible genetic predispositions, including a relative with breast cancer.
Researchers compile resulting genetic transcripts into a database that may help identify the genes responsible for prostate cancer. William J.
Catalona, MD is the director of the center.
Also, the program enrolls men who do not have prostate cancer to compare them to men who do have prostate cancer.
Participation helps the researchers better understand the nature of prostate cancer. Individual results are not shared with participants until it is established that the participants or their family members
could benefit from knowing the results.
A blood kit will be sent at no cost to participants but PSA test results are
not part of this study. Participants will not receive PSA results and should
not consider participation in this study a substitute for annual PSA testing. Background
These studies at Northwestern Memorial Hospital under the direction of Dr.
William J. Catalona are to help researchers zero in on genes that may lead
to new screening tests and eventually new strategies to prevent and treat
one of the top two cancer killers in men.
"We believe prostate cancer is the most hereditary of all cancers. If we
can find out which genes are involved in the development of prostate cancer and
then figure out what goes wrong when they are mutated, we can direct our attention
to the prevention and possible cure of prostate cancer," says William J.
Catalona, M.D., director of Northwestern Memorial’s Familial Prostate Cancer
Screening Program at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern
University, and professor of urology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern
University.
Unlike the successful mapping of BRCA1 and BRCA2, which explain a substantial
proportion of hereditary breast cancers, genes conferring susceptibility to
prostate cancer have been more elusive. "We’re about ten years behind
breast cancer. So far, researchers have identified about 40-50 candidate regions
of the human genome that need further investigation. I think eventually we’ll
end up with about a dozen different genes that, when mutated, can be implicated
for prostate cancer susceptibility and/or aggressiveness," says Dr. Catalona. "The
answers will eventually be found by hitting a bunch of singles, rather than
one home run."
The program will enroll men with a family history of prostate cancer and men
with other possible genetic predispositions, including a relative with breast
cancer, and provide them with state-of-the-art clinical testing. Researchers
will then compile resulting genetic transcripts into a database that may help
them identify the genes responsible for prostate cancer. About Dr. Catalona
Dr. Catalona is one of the country’s foremost experts on prostate cancer.
He is a household name among urologists and is known for having been the first
to show that a simple blood test that measures levels of prostate-specific
antigen (PSA) is the most accurate method for detecting prostate cancer. He
also helped develop the "free" PSA test as a means of improving the
accuracy of prostate cancer screening. In previous research, Dr. Catalona established
and directed the largest single-institution prostate cancer-screening program
in the United States, including 36,000 men in the St. Louis area. He also led
national studies that gained approval of the PSA and free PSA blood tests by
the US Food and Drug Administration. About Northwestern Memorial Hospital
Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) is one of the country’s premier
academic medical centers and is the primary teaching hospital of Northwestern
University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Northwestern Memorial and its
Prentice Women's Hospital and Stone Institute of Psychiatry have 744 beds and
more than 1,200 affiliated physicians and 5,000 employees. Providing state-of-the-art
care, NMH is recognized for its outstanding clinical and surgical advancements
in such areas as cardiothoracic and vascular care, gastroenterology, neurology
and neurosurgery, oncology, organ and bone marrow transplantation, and women’s
health.
Northwestern’s program, under the direction of Dr. Catalona, will be
one of four sites participating in the recent FDA approval of Beckman Coulter
Incorporated’s plan to conduct a pivotal study to test whether the pro-PSA
test is safe and effective at improving the accuracy of PSA testing.
PSA has many forms, including Pro-PSA, which may be a better marker than free
or complexed PSA for distinguishing between PSA elevations due to prostate
cancer and those due to benign conditions of the prostate.
In addition, a state-of-the-art color Doppler ultrasound machine will be used
for prostate imaging and biopsy. Recent evidence suggests that this may be
more accurate in the detection of prostate cancer than the black and white
ultrasounds currently in use at most facilities. “The color Doppler illustrates
in red where there is increased blood flow, and areas where there are a lot
of blood vessels are more likely to be sites for cancer,” Dr. Catalona
said
Northwestern Memorial was ranked as the nation’s 5th best hospital by
the 2002 Consumer Checkbook survey of the nation’s physicians and is
listed in the majority of specialties in this year’s US News & World
Report’s issue of “America’s Best Hospitals.” NMH is
also cited as one of the “100 Best Companies for Working Mothers” by
Working Mother magazine and has been chosen by Chicagoans year after year as
their “most preferred hospital” in National Research Corporation’s
annual survey.
“
Prostate Cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in men. Early detection
is essential to cure this disease,” said Steven T. Rosen, M.D., director
of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University
and professor of medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School
of Medicine. “The launch of this program means that men at high risk
for prostate cancer have access to a sophisticated approach incorporating state
of the art diagnostics and innovative research, which are essential to making
progress in finding a cure for prostate cancer.”
“
The genetics revolution will change the way prostate cancer is diagnosed and
treated,” says Dr. Catalona. "We don't have practical applications
for prostate cancer yet, but we're so very close."
One in six American men is at lifetime risk of prostate cancer. Heredity may
be responsible for as many as a third of the cases of prostate cancer diagnosed
before the age of 60 and up to one-half of cases of men diagnosed before age
55. For more information about Dr. Catalona’s prostate
cancer research studies or to make an appointment at Northwestern’s
Familial Prostate Cancer Screening Program, please call or contact:
Research Coordinator
Familial Prostate Cancer Research and Screening Clinic
Phone: 312 695-4426 or 312 695-0195