Since its inception in 1995, the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMCCC) Prostate Cancer SPORE has endeavored to tap the vast intellectual and physical resources of the University of Michigan community to decrease the morbidity and mortality of prostate cancer. The SPORE supports an interactive group of basic and clinical investigators in a translational research program that has made major discoveries in developing new interventions in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of prostate cancer. The success of the translational mission of the SPORE was exemplified this year by our integrated team of investigators working together and utilizing SPORE resources to win the 1st annual AACR Team Science Award for the discovery of the importance of the TMPRSS:ETS family gene fusions in prostate cancer tumorigenesis. This Award was established by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) to acknowledge and catalyze the growing importance of interdisciplinary teams to the understanding of cancer and/or the translation of research discoveries into clinical cancer applications. This competing renewal application consists of four multidisciplinary research projects: Project 1: Molecular Sub-typing of Prostate Cancer Based on Recurrent Gene Fusions. Project 2: Small-molecule approach to reactivate p53 activity as a new therapeutic strategy for the treatment of advanced human prostate cancer. Project 3: Defining Genetic Risk Factors for Brothers of Men with Prostate Cancer. Project 4: Systemic inhibition of monocyte chemoattractant protein -1 (MCP-1;CCL2) for the treatment of prostate cancer. These projects are complemented by ongoing successful Career Development and Research Development Programs. The projects and programs are supported by a strong ongoing institutional commitment of money and space as well as three cores: Administration Core, Biostatistics Core, and the Tissue Core. This Prostate SPORE program continues to place premiums on rigorous scientific reviewing of its translational research programs, pairing of basic and clinical investigators, drawing on the expertise of scientists outside the field of prostate cancer, and utilizing flexibility to fund promising new research approaches. The interaction of our multidisciplinary group of investigators clearly makes the Prostate SPORE program at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center greater than the sum of its individual parts.
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