Rutgers researcher receives $1 million grant for international prostate cancer study

A $1 million grant from Gateway for Cancer Research will help Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey Urologic Oncology Chief Isaac Yi Kim, MD, PhD, MBA evaluate the impact of surgically removing the prostate in men with metastatic prostate cancer in the United States and Asia.

By year's end, it is estimated that 161,000 U.S. men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. For most, the disease will be localized. But for the 5 percent whose cancer has spread, or metastasized, to distant lymph nodes or organs, only 29 percent are likely to survive five years after diagnosis, according to data from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program.

The grant will support a clinical trial that will accrue participants from two dozen academic institutions in the U.S., Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Over three years, 190 patients who take part in the randomized study will receive either chemo-hormonal therapy or therapy plus cytoreductive surgery that removes both the prostate and surrounding cancerous cells. Dr. Kim, who leads the Prostate Cancer Program at Rutgers Cancer Institute, and his team will measure the impact of these treatments on the patients' disease and quality-of-life outcomes.

"I am grateful for this support from Gateway for Cancer Research, as results of this study could lead to more precise and personalized care for men who present with metastatic prostate cancer and, possibly, improve their survival rates," notes Kim, who is also an associate professor of surgery at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.