Cancer researchers at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, led by Dr. Damu Tang, have been awarded over $800,000 by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to study a protein linked to prostate cancer.
One in six Canadian men are affected by prostate cancer, making it the second leading cause of cancer-associated death in the country.
After initial therapy, halting further progression and recurrence of prostate cancer is paramount. Yet there is still much to be learned about the factors that influence prostate cancer growth.
Recent work by Dr. Tang and his team found that a protein called contactin 1 (CNTN1) promotes prostate cancer growth and progression. The discovery was made after examining more than 600 prostate cancer samples directly obtained from patients, which showed an association between CNTN1 and prostate cancer recurrence. Further work using murine models showed that CNTN1 can initiate prostate cancer, promote metastasis, and ultimately lead to a lethal form of prostate cancer that is resistant to therapy.
Dr. Damu Tang in his laboratory at St. Joe's
The CIHR grant will fund a 5-year study that builds on the team’s previous work to further understand the mechanisms by which CNTN1 promotes prostate cancer formation and progression.
“Our study will produce new knowledge on CNTN1 as a novel and critical prostate cancer factor,” says Dr. Tang. “It may lead to novel therapeutic interventions to inhibit CNTN1 function in hopes of slowing prostate cancer formation and progression.”
Dr. Tang is an affiliate scientist of The Research Institute of St. Joe’s and an associate professor at McMaster University.
The research team includes Dr. Michael Bonert, a staff pathologist at St. Joe’s, as well as Dr. Geoffrey Wood, an expert in murine prostate cancer pathology at the University of Guelph.
Together, they are pioneering studies into the role of CNTN1 in prostate cancer at The Research Institute of St. Joe’s Hamilton.