Fred Hutch Cancer Center researchers are studying ways to prevent prostate cancer, including lifestyle choices that can lower risk. They also seek better methods to screen for the disease, tell which patients will benefit most from treatment and improve treatment results. They are learning how to better tailor care to each patient’s tumor and discovering new targets for therapy.
The Institute for Prostate Cancer Research (IPCR) is a collaboration between Fred Hutch and UW Medicine. Together, this team of more than 40 scientists and providers is studying prostate cancer from many angles. Learn more about the IPCR’s work.
Many breakthroughs in prostate cancer have been made possible by 25 years of research by scientists in the Pacific Northwest Prostate Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE). It’s a coordinated effort between Fred Hutch, University of Washington and other institutions in British Columbia and Oregon. The National Cancer Institute created the SPORE program to strengthen ties between lab research and patient care and to speed the flow of breakthroughs and insights between them.
Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials
Fred Hutch typically has over 750 active cancer clinical trials enrolling participants.
Clinical trials may allow some patients access to a promising new treatment, and help physicians and researchers learn more about a disease.
Our Areas of Prostate Cancer Research
Some of the many areas of prostate cancer research at Fred Hutch include the following topics.
Basic Biology of Prostate Cancer
Our scientists are working to better understand the biology of prostate cancer, with a focus on advanced, late-stage prostate cancer. We’re studying how molecular changes in prostate tumors drive the tumors to develop and progress. This may shed new light on ways we can target tumors with treatment.
Precision Oncology Strategies
Our researchers hope to help physicians tailor treatment to each patient and his tumor. To do this, we need more insight into the molecular and genetic changes in prostate tumors and how the changes shape the disease and treatment response. We’re working to discover new tumor vulnerabilities. These could point the way to more effective, individualized care.
Balancing Detection and Treatment
Most men with prostate cancer have slow-growing tumors that don’t need to be treated. But some tumors are deadly, and patients with those tumors benefit from treatment. Our scientists seek to provide oncologists with better tools to tell who’s in which group. Many Fred Hutch investigators study active surveillance or watchful waiting to see who can benefit from this approach.
Risk Factors
Many things can raise or lower your risk for prostate cancer — and perhaps even the risk that cancer will come back after treatment. These include diet, exercise and inherited gene variants. We’re working to find these factors and measure their impact. This information can help improve screening and treatment recommendations for men who are at risk or have already been diagnosed.
Novel therapies
Our physician-scientists are exploring new ways to treat prostate cancer, including with cellular immunotherapies, like STEAP1 CART. In chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, a patient’s T-cells (a type of immune cell) are changed in the laboratory so they will attack tumor cells.
Our Prostate Cancer Researchers and Faculty
Our scientists and providers work together to prevent, diagnose and treat prostate cancer as well as other cancers and diseases. The lab research and clinical research they do are essential parts of the scientific process that leads to new treatments and better care. Clinical trials can also be a way for patients to get early access to new leading-edge therapies. Our research teams are running many clinical studies for people with prostate cancer.
