Most people don’t know the many advances that the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (DOD PCRP) has brought to the PROSTATE CANCER COMMUNITY.  Did you know that the program is directly responsible for funding the initial development of three of the very new drugs we have available?

The DOD PCRP is directly responsible for the development of:

ZYTIGA

XTANDI

XOFIGO

Without the funding from the DOD PCRP we would not have these life extending treatments!

Besides these drugs the DOD PCRP has funded other investigational treatments which are either in or preparing to enter into clinical trials.  The DOD PCRP has also funded research that has led to the better understanding of the social and psychological implications of a diagnosis of PROSTATE CANCER.

The DOD PCRP funds a biorepository of high quality tissue that is available to all PROSTATE CANCER researchers,.

It started and continues to fund the Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium, which has brought together vast scientific and clinical expertise and unique institutional resources from 13 major cancer centers across the nation to work together to design and execute faster, more precise, and more cost-effective clinical testing of new treatments. In less than six years, the Consortium has conducted more than 60 early-phase studies investigating over 30 different drugs. Over 1,700 patients have been recruited to participate in these studies, and these efforts have recently moved five potential therapies into the final phases of clinical testing before use of the new drugs can be approved by the FDA.

Another example of a key research effort is the Prostate Cancer Project, or PCaP, which the PCRP has funded since FY02. The PCaP seeks to delineate the factors that contribute to the high incidences and disproportionate rates of prostate cancer deaths in African American versus Caucasian men. The PCaP is a collaboration among three leading institutions in Louisiana, North Carolina, and New York and, despite losing ground due to hurricane Katrina in 2005, has this year completed accrual of over 2,000 men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer. This landmark study may finally help us understand and address the factors that cause health disparity, including 1) access to and interaction with the health care system, 2) diet and genetics, and 3) race-dependent prostate cancer characteristics. (last two paragraphs are quoted from a statement delivered to Congress by Dr. Carolyn Best, former Program Manager of the DOD PCRP, March 2010.)

We need to save the DOD PCRP and you can help (besides contacting your members of congress see:(advancedprostatecancer.net/senator-mccain-amendment-might-kill-prostate-cancer-research-funding ).  If you have benefited from Zytiga, Xtandi or Xofigo please share your story either in the comments of this blog or by sending them directly to my email at Joel@Malecare.org.

Please help.