Research Profile: Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, N.Y.

Prostate cancer research at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, N.Y.

ByABC News
March 3, 2009, 2:59 PM

March 16, 2009 -- I'm Donald Trump, I'm the director of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and over the last 10 years, we have specifically emphasized prostate cancer research as one of our primary areas of development. We have scientists and clinical investigators studying the role of vitamin D, both as a force in the development of prostate cancer, as well as vitamin D as a treatment for prostate cancer.

Scientists in our institution are studying androgens, testosterone, and the androgen receptor -- the protein that mediates, or transmits the force of androgen into the cancer cell -- trying to understand the answer to the question, ''How does testosterone, or androgens, play a role into the development and growth of prostate cancer?'' And importantly, ''How do cancer cells escape control from testosterone?'' The lethal form of prostate cancer is that form in which androgens no longer seem to play a role, and we're trying to understand what those factors are.

We also have scientists studying the role of selenium. And as possible treatments for prostate cancer, we have evidence that selenium and androgens interact. And there's also studies ongoing looking at blood vessels, blood vessel growth and how you can control blood vessel growth as a way to control the growth of prostate cancer. So there are a large number of scientists at Roswell Park studying prostate cancer.

It's important to emphasize that the diagnostic test that's now widely used for prostate cancer -- the PSA, or prostate specific antigen -- was discovered at Roswell Park, and so we continue to build on the foundation established by Dr. Ming Chu when he discovered PSA in 1976. So we're very proud and enthusiastic about the contributions to progress in prostate cancer research through the researchers at Roswell Park.