CCR Clinical Trials at NIH: Health Care Professionals: Clinical Programs: Prostate Cancer Program

Prostate Cancer Program

Medical Oncology Branch
Radiation Oncology Branch
Urologic Oncology Branch

Mission

The Prostate Cancer Program’s three major goals are clinical research, clinical care, and clinical training to improve management of patients with prostate cancer. Specifically, the prostate cancer team strives to:

Design and test new therapeutic research strategies for the treatment of patients with prostate cancer
Provide excellent multi-disciplinary clinical care to prostate cancer patients
Educate its trainees with a comprehensive clinical experience in the management of all types of prostate cancer in a multi-disciplinary setting

Overview

The Prostate Cancer Program's multi-disciplinary clinic meets weekly in the Clinical Center and incorporates the expertise from urologic oncology, medical oncology, diagnostic radiology, pathology, and radiation oncology to discuss and provide an individualized treatment strategy for each patient. Clinical research trials are conducted by principal investigators, physicians, nurses, and staff of the above-mentioned departments at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Low-Risk Prostate Cancer Patients
Patients are selected for a clinical trial on the basis of whether they are surgical candidates or candidates for a current dose escalation radiation study.

High-Risk Prostate Cancer Patients
Patients are selected for a clinical trial on the basis of whether they exhibit high-risk prostate cancer and may be eligible for more aggressive strategies involving dose-escalation radiation protocols or other trials.

Recurrent/Non-Metastatic Cancer Patients
Patients are selected on the basis of whether they may potentially benefit from aggressive salvage regimens or experimental systemic therapy.

Men with rising PSA without metastasis on hormonal therapy

A Randomized Phase II Trial Combining Vaccine Therapy With PROSTVAC/TRICOM and Flutamide vs. Flutamide Alone in Men With Androgen Insensitive, Non-Metastatic (D0.5) Prostate Cancer

Metastatic Prostate Cancer Patients
Patients who exhibit disseminated disease that is castration resistant (progressive despite castrate levels of testosterone) may be eligible for trials that incorporate immunotherapy, other experimental therapy, or chemotherapy into management.

Men with no prior docetaxel (Taxotere) chemotherapy

Please contact the group for information on trials in this patient population.

Men with prior docetaxel (Taxotere) chemotherapy

No standard of care exists for this population. We currently have three trials accruing patients.

Research Team

William L. Dahut, M.D.
Chief, GU/GYN Clinical Research Unit,
Medical Oncology Branch and Affiliates, CCR, NCI

Dr. William L. Dahut received his M.D. from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He completed clinical training in internal medicine at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., followed by training in hematology and medical oncology at the Bethesda Naval Hospital and the Medicine Branch of NCI. Dr. Dahut worked as an attending physician in the NCI–Navy Medical Oncology Branch until 1995. He then joined the faculty of the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University before returning to the former NCI Medicine Branch in 1998 as head of the prostate cancer clinic. Dr Dahut is now chief of the GU/GYN Clinical Research Section in the Medical Oncology Branch. Dr. Dahut’s primary research interest has been in the development of novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of adenocarcinoma of the prostate.

James L. Gulley, M.D., Ph.D.
Senior Clinician
Director, Clinical Immunotherapy Group, Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and
Biology, Medical Oncology Branch and Affiliates, CCR, NCI

Dr. James L. Gulley is a board-certified medical oncologist and director of the Clinical Immunotherapy Group at the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology at NCI. He is a clinical investigator within the Medical Oncology Branch. He received his medical training at Loma Linda University in its medical scientist training program where he obtained a Ph.D. with his work in tumor immunology as well as an M.D. He went to Emory University for a residency in internal medicine and then to NCI for a fellowship in medical oncology. Following his fellowship, he was retained as senior staff within NCI. Dr. Gulley has been running clinical trials in prostate cancer immunotherapy since 1999 and is an internationally recognized expert in this field.

Peter A. Pinto, M.D.
Principal Investigator
Urologic Oncology Branch, CCR, NCI

Dr. Peter A. Pinto is a senior investigator and faculty member in the Urologic Oncology Branch of NCI, NIH, in Bethesda, Md. Following a residency in urologic surgery at Long Island Jewish Medical Center - Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, he was a fellow and clinical instructor at the Brady Urologic Institute, Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Pinto is a board-certified urologic surgeon specializing in oncology and is the director of the Urologic Oncology Fellowship Program at NCI. He is nationally and internationally recognized as an expert in the minimally invasive treatment of urologic cancers, specializing in laparoscopic and robotic surgery for prostate, kidney, bladder, and testicular cancer.

Aradhana Kaushal, M.D.
Staff Clinician
Imaging and Molecular Therapeutics Section,
Radiation Oncology Branch, CCR, NCI

Dr. Aradhana Kaushal graduated with a B.A./M.D., magna cum laude, from Boston University in 2002. She completed a year at NCI conducting research under the direction of Dr. Norman Coleman and Dr. David Gius, studying a possible mechanism for resistance of tumor cells to oxidative stress, which involves control of gene expression through transcription factor activation, methylation, and protein chaperone compartmentalization. She completed her internship in internal medicine in 2003 at Lenox Hill Hospital, a teaching hospital of New York University in Manhattan. Dr. Kaushal completed a residency in radiation oncology in 2007 at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pa., and served as chief resident from 2006–2007. Her clinical focus is prostate and pediatric malignancies. Dr. Kaushal is board certified by the American Board of Radiology.

Medical Oncology Branch and Affiliates Research

The Medical Oncology Branch has the following major functions:

Clinical Research
Clinical Care
Clinical Training

The purpose of these functions is to:

1) develop novel therapeutic research strategies for the treatment of cancer and to test those strategies by conducting clinical research in medical oncology across a spectrum of diseases and disease mechanisms

2) provide clinical care to adult cancer patients enrolled in research protocols, including inpatient and outpatient care services, to support the clinical research effort emanating from principal investigators in laboratories and branches across the Center for Cancer Research

3) train physician–scientists in a laboratory-to-clinic translational research setting to promote the development of their expertise in medical oncology research and to support their board certification by the American Board of Internal Medicine
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Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology

The Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology conducts translational research in the areas of tumor immunology, immunotherapy, mechanisms of tumor cell–immune cell interactions, and immune mechanisms. The laboratory functions as an integrated translational research program with the goal of designing and developing new immunotherapies and immunologic strategies for cancer treatment and prevention. Ongoing studies involve (1) the analysis of basic immunologic mechanisms and principles, (2) the design and development of novel recombinant vaccines, (3) the analysis of tumor cell–immune cell interactions, and (4) the discovery of antigenic determinants expressed in human cancers as vaccine or monoclonal antibody targets.
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Urologic Oncology Branch

The Urologic Oncology Branch conducts clinical and basic research designed to develop better methods for detection, prevention, and therapy of patients with genitourinary malignancies. The primary focus of the Urologic Oncology Branch is the study of the genes associated with initiation and progression of kidney and prostate cancers.

In the Urologic Oncology Branch, patients with hereditary forms of genitourinary malignancies, von Hippel-Lindau disease, hereditary papillary renal carcinoma, and hereditary prostate carcinoma are evaluated and treated by a multidisciplinary team.
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Radiation Oncology Branch

The Radiation Oncology Branch plans and conducts pre-clinical and clinical research on the biologic and therapeutic effects of radiation administrated alone or in combination with other modalities of treatment; to develop novel technology and imaging based approaches for radiation oncology; to investigate the natural history of disease to understand and evaluate means of diagnostic assessment for the purpose of optimizing treatment selections; and to provide radiation therapy as well as general oncology consultations for patients admitted to other Clinical Research Center clinical services, in a collaborative approach.
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Medical Oncology BranchRadiation Oncology BranchUrologic Oncology Branch

Clinical Trials

Medical Oncology Branch and Affiliates Research

Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology

Urologic Oncology Branch

Radiation Oncology Branch

Please contact a Team Coordinator to make a referral:

Medical Oncology Branch
Radiation Oncology Branch
Urologic Oncology Branch