NEWS RELEASE

Released: March 27, 2014

Defense Health Program, Department of Defense
DoD Prostate Cancer Research Program
Names Four to Fiscal Year 2014 (FY14) Integration Panel

The Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP), US Department of Defense (DoD), named three scientists and a consumer advocate to the PCRP Integration Panel (IP) during its Fiscal Year 2014 (FY14) Vision Setting meeting, held March 20-21, 2014, in Baltimore, Maryland. Scientists Dr. William Dahut of the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Adam Dicker of the Jefferson Medical College, and Dr. Marianne Sadar of the British Columbia Cancer Agency and consumer advocate Mr. Joel Nowak of MaleCare, Inc., join a distinguished group of scientists, clinicians, and consumer advocates who make up the seventeen-member advisory body (https://cdmrp.health.mil/pcrp/panels/panel13).

The PCRP Integration Panel, comprised of some of the nation's foremost innovative thinkers and creative leaders in prostate cancer research and clinical care, is an external advisory body that recommends an appropriate vision, award mechanisms, and investment strategy for the program, makes funding recommendations on applications submitted to the program, and advises program officers on policy development and critical issues in prostate cancer research and clinical management. Dr. Philip Arlen is the FY14 IP Chair. President, CEO, and Chief Medical Officer of Precision Biologics, Inc., Dr. Arlen is a board certified medical oncologist. An internationally recognized expert on cancer immunology, he served 11 years at the National Cancer Institute, USA, where he was Director, Clinical Research Group, Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Oncology, focusing on clinical trials of cancer vaccines and immunostimulatory molecules.

Established in 1997, the PCRP is sustained through grassroots efforts of prostate cancer advocates and supporters seeking congressional funding to support innovative, high-impact, meritorious scientific investigations in prostate cancer research. These efforts have transformed the landscape of biomedical research, energized the work of prostate cancer research investigators, and focused attention on conducting highly collaborative, multidisciplinary, multi-institutional research to realize a cure for those affected by the disease. As the PCRP enters its seventeenth year, the three new scientists and one consumer advocate, along with the other panel members, will be faced with the full range of challenges in understanding prostate cancer and preventing its effects. The new members will bring their respective areas of expertise to bear to address some of the critical issues affecting patients and the obstacles investigators must overcome to defeat prostate cancer.

The CDMRP Director, Colonel Wanda Salzer, in welcoming the four new panel members said, "We are very excited about the expertise and enthusiasm brought by the new members of the PCRP Integration Panel. Their active involvement will keep the program strong and facilitate advancements for prostate cancer patients and their families through the development of improved detection and management of the disease."

Dr. William Dahut is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in the subspecialties of medical oncology and heads the Prostate Cancer Clinic of the National Cancer Institute, where he is also Clinical Director and Deputy Scientific Director of the Center for Cancer Research (CCR). Prior to becoming Clinical Director, he served as the NCI's Chief of the Genitourinary/Gynecological Clinical Research Section in the Medical Oncology Clinical Research Unit. Dr. Dahut's primary research interest has been the development of new treatments for adenocarcinoma of the prostate. He previously held academic and clinical appointments in the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University and the National Naval Medical Center, respectively. Dr. Dahut has held membership in a number of professional societies, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the American College of Physicians. He has reviewed submissions to leading medical journals including Cancer Research, Clinical Center Research, Contemporary Oncology, The New England Journal of Medicine, and The Lancet.

Dr. Adam Dicker is Chair and Professor of Radiation Oncology, Pharmacology, and Experimental Therapeutics at Thomas Jefferson University, coordinating a team of oncologists, physicists, and scientists focused on defining fundamental mechanisms and targets for combined radiation treatment and translating them to effective innovations in treating cancer patients. He also serves as Director of the Christine Baxter Research Laboratory for Experimental Cancer Therapies at Jefferson Medical College. His group defined for prostate brachytherapy the influence of edema on dosimetric parameters critical for quality metrics, with more recent research correlating radiotherapy protocol deviations and overall survival. His PCRP- and Prostate Cancer Foundation-funded work focuses on the "self-seeding" of prostate cells with metastatic properties back to the site of origin, which contributes to disease progression. His PCRP Synergistic Idea Development Award is exploring the use of "smart needles" for diagnostic and therapeutic applications, and his group has published numerous papers evaluating signal transduction agents with ionizing radiation and "first in human" developmental therapeutic trials involving novel signal transduction agents and radiation therapy. Dr. Dicker serves as the co-Chair, Translational Science Committee for the NCI cooperative group NRG Oncology (NSABP/RTOG/GOG). He represents NRG Oncology on the National Cancer Institute's Investigational Drug Steering Committee of the Cancer Treatment Evaluation Program and is a consultant on cancer to the European Commission, the National Cancer Institute of Canada, and the Italian Association of Cancer Research. He serves on the editorial boards of Clinical Cancer Research, Cancer Biology, Future Oncology, BMC Cancer and Radiation Oncology.

Mr. Joel Nowak is a prostate cancer patient/survivor. Director for Advocacy and Advanced Prostate Cancer Programs at MaleCare, Inc., he also serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association of State Prostate Cancer Coalitions and the New York State Prostate Cancer Coalition. Mr. Nowak is a prostate cancer educator and advocate, runs face-to-face and on-line support groups for men with advanced prostate cancer, and is an active blogger at www.advancedprostatecancer.net. He has written an online guide - logging more than 20,000 downloads - about recurrent and advanced prostate cancer. An active advocate for political change, who has given testimony at the FDA and before Congress, Mr. Nowak also is co-creator of a crowdfunding website that supports cancer research (www.startacure.com). With a B.A. from Clark University, an M.S.W. from the University of Michigan, and an M.A. from Columbia University Teachers College, Mr. Nowak has enjoyed successful careers in education and business.

Dr. Marianne Sadar is Distinguished Scientist, Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Agency, and Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia. She is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Prostate Cancer Foundation (USA) and the Research Council of the American Urological Association. She received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry, University of Bradford, UK / University of Göteborg, Sweden. Dr. Sadar has received numerous awards including the Society of Women in Urology and the Society for Basic Urologic Research Award for Excellence in Urologic Research (2010), Simon Fraser University Outstanding Alumni Award for Academic Achievement (2009), Terry Fox Young Investigator Award (2008), and the Canadian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism D. Harold Copp Award. Dr. Sadar is known for her research on identifying mechanisms of activating the androgen receptor and developing therapeutics for advanced prostate cancer that target the N-terminal domain of the androgen receptor. She is co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Essa Pharma Inc., a small biotechnology company developing therapeutics for advanced prostate cancer.

More information about the DoD Prostate Cancer Research Program can be found on the CDMRP website at https://cdmrp.health.mil/pcrp/default.

Point of Contact:

Jennie Mettert-Young
CDMRP Public Affairs
301-619-9783
usarmy.detrick.medcom-cdmrp.mbx.cdmrp-public-affairs@mail.mil