# SPORE in Prostate Cancer

> **NIH NIH P50** · SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH · 2020 · $2,314,241

## Abstract

Project Summary
Over the past 15 years, the SPORE in Prostate Cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer
Center has made significant advances in prostate cancer research and treatment, using the
evolving mechanistic understanding of the drivers of tumor growth to improve patient
management across the clinical spectrum of the disease. Applying a risk-adapted approach that
is biomarker based, our work has led to the development of new diagnostic blood tests and
prognostic models to distinguish indolent from clinically significant cancers, the discovery of new
therapeutic targets, their validation in preclinical models, and the successful development of
drugs directed to them in trials designed according to the recommendations of the Prostate
Cancer Working Group. Our efforts have impacted clinical practice worldwide.
Recent discoveries enabled by state-of-the-art molecular profiling and bioinformatics, combined
with a commitment by the research community to obtain human prostate cancers representing
all clinical states for analysis, are leading rapidly to a biology-based taxonomy that will further
refine medical decision making—personalized, precision medicine. Over the next 5 years, our
program will continue to focus on defining the mechanisms that contribute to disease
progression and resistance to therapy, developing validated assays to identify them in patient
tumors that can be used in a clinical setting, designing dedicated biomarker trials to validate
them clinically, and demonstrating their utility to inform medical decision making. We are
confident that our efforts will not only improve patient outcomes but will enable urgently needed
new systemic therapies to be successfully developed more rapidly. Our SPORE is organized
into 5 major research projects that are tightly integrated to achieve the overall objectives. Each
is headed by a basic and a clinical investigator who lead a multidisciplinary team that was
chosen for its outstanding translational potential and ability to address critical unmet patient
needs. This “team science” approach extends beyond the boundaries of our program to include
vital collaborations with other institutions and networks, federal agencies, and industry, including
other SPOREs and translational science programs, the Department of Defense Transformative
Impact Award, which brings together pathologists and clinical oncologists from 5 prostate
SPOREs to analytically validate tissue based predictive biomarker assays, and the Prostate
Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium, which virtually guarantees that important basic and clinical
discoveries made and developed through our SPORE and in our research network are
translated to reach human endpoints quickly and efficiently.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9998846
- **Project number:** 5P50CA092629-20
- **Recipient organization:** SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH
- **Principal Investigator:** HOWARD I SCHER
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $2,314,241
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2001-09-14 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9998846

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9998846, SPORE in Prostate Cancer (5P50CA092629-20). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9998846. Licensed CC0.

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