# Elucidating the Role of Trop2 in Prostate Cancer

> **NIH NIH R37** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $364,090

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men in the United States. The first line of treatment for
men with aggressive prostate cancer is hormone therapy or androgen ablation therapy. Although initial
responses are observed, unfortunately, the disease commonly recurs in its aggressive hormone therapy-
resistant form also known as castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Current therapies for hormone
therapy resistant prostate cancer or CRPC prolong the patients’ lifespan by only a few months. Thus, there is
an urgent need to identify the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of CRPC in order to define
new strategies to overcome aggressive prostate cancer.
Trop2 is a cell surface protein that is found altered in multiple types of human cancers. Our recent studies
demonstrate that Trop2 is a novel promising therapeutic target for aggressive prostate cancer due to its high
expression in advanced prostate cancer and its oncogenic role in the disease. The goals of the proposed
research are to:
1) Establish Trop2 activation as a driver of CRPC and assess its role in tumor maintenance.
2) Investigate the molecular mechanisms through which Trop2 contributes to the development of the aggressive
disease.
The completion of the proposed project will lead to defining new molecular mechanisms underlying the
development of aggressive prostate cancer. The proposed project will evaluate the oncogenic role of Trop2
receptor and its activation in aggressive prostate cancer in pre-clinical models of prostate cancer creating an
important translational link between the proposed research and treatment of patients with aggressive disease in
the near future. Due to the high expression of Trop2 in many epithelial cancers, we believe that our findings will
be applicable to a broad range of cancers.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10380825
- **Project number:** 5R37CA240822-03
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Tanya I Stoyanova
- **Activity code:** R37 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $364,090
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-04-01 → 2022-12-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10380825

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10380825, Elucidating the Role of Trop2 in Prostate Cancer (5R37CA240822-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10380825. Licensed CC0.

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