Prostate cancer is one of the great medical challenges of our time. It stands first in absolute incidence and second only to lung cancer as a cause of cancer mortality among men in the United States. The increasingly routine use of digital rectal examination and serum prostate-specific antigen screening (PSA) has magnified public awareness, diagnosis, and the number of men undergoing treatment for prostate cancer. This comes at a time when advances in molecular pathology provide researchers expanding opportunities for the study of cancer. However, critical to enhancing research on prostate cancer is the ready availability of specimens of this malignancy and its corresponding benign and normal counterparts. The principal goal of this proposal is to develop a comprehensive, user- friendly, state-of-the-art bank containing optimally preserved specimens of prostate cancer, intraepithelial prostate neoplasms, and benign and normal prostate tissues and biological (blood, urine, etc.) specimens plus their corresponding clinical data in order to assist in the translation of basic research into clinical applications.
The specific aims are to: establish a Mid- Atlantic Prostate Cancer Bank (MAPCB) comprised of institutions capable of and interested in working together toward the creation and goals of the NCI Cooperative Prostate Cancer Tissue Resource (Resource); establish and maintain a comprehensive bank of quality fixed and frozen specimens of cancerous, benign and normal prostate and other relevant cell and fluid specimens accompanied by pertinent clinical data; establish a quality assurance system to monitor the collection and preservation processes and ensure the quality of the material collected and distributed to individual investigators; establish an administrative structure to maintain patients' confidentiality while providing investigators accurate information regarding specimens and corresponding clinical data; review emerging research regarding prostate cancer to maintain relevance of banked specimens; and collaborate with the NCI and other awardees to publicize the Resource, optimize (and standardize) specimen and clinical data collection, preservation, quality control, and distribution processes and policies. This resource will assure that investigators will obtain optimal research specimens with clinical-pathologic correlation for their studies.
