KGH researchers working to develop new prostate cancer test

2012 Aug21

Men with prostate cancer could soon know precisely how serious their disease is - and how aggressively to treat it - the moment they are diagnosed, thanks to a new team of researchers at KGH.
"We hope to create a test so accurate that patients don't need to consider surgery or radiation unless it's really needed," says Jeremy Squire, Research Chair in Molecular Pathology at KGH and Professor in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at Queen's University.
Squire heads up the research team along with recent recruits Paul Park and Paulo Nuin, both adjunct assistant professors. As members of the newly formed Canadian Prostate Cancer Biomarker Network (CPCBN), they are joining investigators from across the country who are working to create a test that could augment - or altogether replace - the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test currently used.
And thanks to a recent $4 million funding boost to the network via the Terry Fox Research Institute and the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, a new test could be close at hand.
Adding further momentum, Nuin and Park have secured two grants amounting to $300,000 from the Prostate Cancer Canada Pilot Grants for Young Investigators. The funding will go a long way to "creating significant research discoveries at KGH", says Squire.

squireparknuin2012aug.htm