> CPDR's Mission

Mission Statement

The Center for Prostate Disease Research (CPDR) will conduct basic science and clinical research programs that strive to combat diseases of the prostate. It will integrate basic and clinical science studies to improve early detection and prognostic factors and develop potential treatments for prostate disease. The CPDR will focus on the natural history of prostate disease, outcomes research, as well as behavioral, psychosocial and quality-of-life issues as they relate to prostate disease. It will also provide for training in molecular biology and clinical research for physicians, scientists, and medical and graduate students. The Center will support other collaborative research efforts related to prostate disease within DoD.

The CPDR mission is fulfilled primarily through its three principal programs – the Clinical Research Center, the Basic Science Research Program and the Tri-Service Multicenter Prostate Cancer Database– and through a robust education and training program that operates out of its Headquarters location, the Clinical Research Center, and the original laboratories at USUHS. CPDR is also committed to patient outreach, primarily through its affiliation with the WRAMC US TOO! organization and through a heavy schedule of health fairs in which it participates.

Background

In 1991, amid the growing prevalence of prostate cancer and controversy over the optimal treatment for it, Congress enacted Public Law 102-172 to establish the Center for Prostate Disease Research (CPDR), whose mission it would be to study prostate cancer and disease in the U.S. Military Health Care System. The law designated to the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) the authority to create and administer CPDR, in coordination with the USUHS-affiliated Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine (HJF).

Col. David G. McLeod is the current Director of CPDR. The leaders at the program’s outset were Dr. Norman M. Rich, founding Chairman, Department of Surgery, USUHS and Dr. McLeod, former Chief of Urology, Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC). Dr. McLeod also serves as CPDR’s Director of Clinical Research. CPDR’s other senior leaders include Dr. Shiv Srivastava, CPDR Co-director and Director of the Basic Science Research Program; Dr. Jennifer Cullen, directs the Tri-Service National Prostate Cancer Database; and Mr. Norbert Stingle, Administrative Director.

The scope of CPDR’s research activities grew rapidly. To accommodate the needs of its increasingly-robust basic science efforts, in 1998 CPDR expanded from its laboratories within the Department of Surgery at USUHS to a new headquarters facility containing laboratory and administrative space in Rockville, Maryland. Additionally, over the years CPDR has expanded its clinical work to nine participating Army, Naval and Air Force Medical Centers, and one civilian site – the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. These affiliated sites contribute data and biospecimens obtained from prostate cancer patients and participate in clinical trials.

In August 2000 CPDR opened a fully dedicated prostate cancer clinic at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC). The 13,000-square-foot facility accommodates the care and treatment of regular prostate cancer patients, their enrollment in clinical trials, and the holding of clinics by urologic-oncologists, physician extenders, clinical research coordinators and a full-time PhD-level nurse researcher in education. In addition, there is a weekly multidisciplinary clinic between urology, radiation oncology and medical oncology and a comprehensive patient education and support activity.

CPDR also has a large presence at the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC). This site is notable for its close and active collaborations with the Intramural Prostate Cancer program of Urologic Oncology Branch of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The NNMC site is also a major source of research subjects as well as prostate tissue obtained through a tissue procurement protocol approved in 1999.

The other CPDR military medical center sites are Malcolm Grow Medical Center (MGMC), Naval Medical Center - San Diego (NMCSD), Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC), Wilford Hall Medical Center (WHMC), Madigan Army Medical Center (MAMC), Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Virginia Mason Medical Center, and Naval Medical Center – Portsmouth. These sites are valuable to CPDR for the clinical research that the Principal Investigators conduct and for the patients these sites enroll into the Tri-Service National Prostate Cancer Database.