Elisabeth Heath, M.D., F.A.C.P., professor of oncology and medicine for the Wayne State University School of Medicine, and director of Prostate Cancer Research at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, along with prostate cancer research colleagues, has received renewed grant funding by the U.S. Department of Defense for the institute's participation in the Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium.
Dr. Heath, who is also the Hartmann Endowed Chair for Prostate Cancer Research, and her team have been part of the consortium since 2008. The renewal allows them to be part of the consortium and to receive funding for another three years.
The grant will award $912,000 toward the clinical trials infrastructure necessary to conduct translational prostate cancer research studies. To date, the Department of Defense has provided $1,519,071 to the investigators.
"Receiving funding is a highly competitive process and the consortium is a highly coveted group to be in since prostate cancer experts from major centers are involved," Dr. Heath said. "Being part of the consortium allows us to conduct and participate in cutting-edge clinical trials, which will ultimately benefit our prostate cancer patients."
The Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium was formed in 2005 by the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the DOD's Prostate Cancer Research program. It was established in response to gaps identified in prostate cancer clinical research by physician investigators and prostate cancer advocates.
The consortium is now a major, multi-institutional clinical research organization that includes a nationwide network of physicians at 13 academic institutions specializing in cutting-edge prostate cancer research, with a single coordinating center located at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Consortium members work together on a single mission -- to design, implement and complete hypothesis-driven Phase I, II and III trials in prostate cancer, translating scientific discoveries into improved standards of patient care.