June 20, 2018
AACR 2018, Chicago, IL April 14-18
The 2018 AACR Annual Meeting gathered this year at McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois from April 14 to 18 under the theme of Driving Innovative Cancer Science to Patient Care. The Center for Prostate Disease Research (CPDR) multi-disciplinary team - together with collaborators – delivered one podium presentation and 12 poster presentations. The team was co-led by Dr. Shiv Srivastava, CPDR Co-Director and Professor, and Dr. Albert Dobi, Associate Director, CPDR and Research Assistant Professor, of the Department of Surgery, USU and WRNMMC.
Podium Presentations
Dr. Shiv Srivastava presented a lecture in the session on Prostate Cancer Disparities: Focus on African American Men. In his presentation titled, “Distinct biologic features of prostate cancer in African American men”, Dr. Srivastava presented emerging data from genetic and genomic studies from CPDR and other laboratories that highlighted the differences in race and ethnicity associated alterations in prostate cancer. He underscored the significant differences in alterations of the two most common prostate cancer driver genes, ERG and PTEN: higher frequencies in men of European ancestry and lower in men of Asian and African descents. In addition, he discussed impact of the recent findings and ongoing work of LSAMP and CHD1 deletions, both of which are associated with rapid disease progression among African American patients. He pointed out the recent transcriptomic and epigenetic studies that focused on prostate cancers of African American men. Lastly, he stressed the need to improve our understanding of cancer genome, transcriptome, proteome and metabolome of underrepresented populations, and its implications in improving the detection and treatment of prostate cancer.
Dr. Albert Dobi presenting the research findings of his poster findings to
a visitor.
Poster Presentations
Dr. Abert Dobi presented a poster titled “ Racial/ethnic differences in prostate cancer genomic alterations”. His presentation highlighted the differential frequencies ERG and PTEN genomic alterations, and CHD1deletion in the prostate cancer between African Americans and Caucasian Americans prostate cancers, which suggest distinct biological mechanisms in the pathogenicity of the disease and reveal new therapeutic opportunities.
Dr. Hua Li presented a poster titled, “Distinct PMEPA1 gene isoforms regulate androgen-responsive or TGF-β-responsive prostate cancers”. In his poster, Dr. Li reported that PMEPA1 isoforms are key contributors to both androgen dependent to androgen resistant (TGF-β dependent) stages of the disease. His findings indicate that PMEPA1 isoforms competitively regulate AR and TGF-β, which suggest the prospective stratification of prostate cancers by PMEPA1 isoforms expression for treatments that combine standard hormone ablation with those that target TGF-β.
Dr. Charles Xavier presented a poster titled, “Synthesis and evaluation of derivatives of selective inhibitor ERGi USU, for ERG-positive prostate cancer cells”. He highlighted the identification of a derivative of ERGi-USU, which shows improved selectively inhibition on cell growth ERG positive prostate cancer and preferential binding to human RIOK2, with promising potential for targeted treatment of prostate cancer and other malignancies that are ERG positive. This is a collaborative study with Dr. Sanjay Malhotra of Stanford University, and Dr. Meera Srivastava and Dr. Clifton Dalgard of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.
Dr. Indu Kohaar presented a posters titled, “Association of common germline variants with TMPRSS2-ERG gene fusion status in prostate cancer”. In her poster, Dr. Kohaar described the identification of SNPs associated with ERG status of CaP, a major driver oncogene in CaP. This is a collaborative study with Dr. Matthew Freedman at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA.
Dr. William Gesztes presented a poster titled, “A mosaic ERG oncoprotein staining pattern predicts upstaging and poor pathologic features in prostate cancer patients”. Dr. Gesztes’s findings suggest a utility for examining “hybrid” mosaic staining pattern in patient risk stratification during treatment decision making.
Dr. Jesse Fox presented a poster titled, “Novel genomic alterations in renal medullary carcinoma tumors”. In his poster, Dr. Fox reported the results of whole exome analysis of renal medullary carcinoma tumors, which detected of SMARCB1 deletions in most of the tumors analyzed. The research was performed in collaboration with Dr. Isabell Sesterhenn, the Joint Pathology Center, Dr. Clifton Dalgard and Dr. Matthew Wilkerson, Department of Anatomy, Physiology & Genetics, USU, under the Collaborative Health Initiative Research Program (CHIRP).
Dr. Shyh-Han Tan presented two posters. The first titled, “Immunobiomarkers: Structural and Functional Characterization of Single Chain Fragment Variable (scFv) to ERG from a Mouse Monoclonal Antibody”. The second is titled “Reexpression of LSAMP, a gene frequently deleted in African American prostate cancers, alters adhesive qualities of prostate tumor cells and inhibits Akt, ERK1/2, and β-Catenin signaling axis”
Poster Presentations of Collaborative Studies
Dr. Michael A. Kiebish (Berg Pharma, BERG, Framingham, MA) presented two posters. The first poster, “Clinical utility of a serum protein biomarker panel (FLNA, KRT19) in stratification of prostate cancer from benign prostate hyperplasia patients”. The second poster is titled, “A panel of serum proteins, metabolite and lipid for prognosing prostate cancer progression ”.
Dr. Yuqian Gao (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA) presented a poster titled, “Selection of candidate biomarkers for aggressive prostate cancer based on targeted proteomics”.
Dr. Stephanie A. Harmon (Leidos Biomedical Research, Bethesda, MD), presented a poster titled, “Combined MRI and molecular signatures of prostate cancer: Association with biochemical recurrence”. This is a collaborative study with Dr. Peter Pinto, and Peter Choyke, both of the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, and Dr. Isabell Sesterhenn, Joint Pathology Center, Silver Spring, MD.
