Scott Dehm, Ph.D., a prostate cancer researcher at the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, has received a Young Investigator Award for 2008 from the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
Dehm is one of 19 researchers in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom to receive this award. He will use his $225,000 award to continue his research on how to block the progression of recurrent prostate cancer that is resistant to conventional treatments.
Surgery and radiation therapy are the most common treatments for prostate cancer. If those treatments are ineffective, the next step is often androgen deprivation therapy to stop the cancer’s growth and survival. This therapy inhibits the androgen receptor (AR), a type of hormone receptor in the prostate that promotes prostate cancer growth. However, this treatment is not curative, and over time the cancer can progress.
With his research award, Dehm will create laboratory models that show how the AR continues to cause prostate cancer growth even after AR activity is blocked. He hopes these models will provide better understanding of how prostate cancer progresses and potentially lead to the development of new treatments for men with advanced prostate cancer.
