University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI)

Overview

The Biochemoprevention Program promotes basic, translational, and clinical research on cancer chemoprevention. Chemoprevention is a relatively new but rapidly growing discipline in oncology, and it refers to the use of natural or synthetic agents to delay, suppress, and/or reverse the process of carcinogenesis. The main areas of interest for this program include:

• Identification and pre-clinical evaluation of cancer chemopreventive agents in edible plants (e.g., isothiocyanates from cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and organosulfur compounds in Allium vegetables such as garlic)
• Identification and pre-clinical development of cancer chemopreventive agents derived from traditional Indian, Chinese, and Korean medicinal plants (e.g., guggulsterone, a plant sterol derived from the gum resin of the tree Commiphora mukul that has been used extensively in Indian traditional medicine)
• Dissemination of cancer prevention messages through community education and behavioral modification
• Investigation of the molecular mechanism by which certain environmental chemicals (e.g., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in tobacco smoke) cause neoplastic transformation; the intent is to apply this knowledge for rational development of practical and effective chemopreventive regimens
• Initiation of clinical trials on potential cancer chemopreventive agents

The Biochemoprevention Program researchers are a multidisciplinary group of basic and clinical investigators committed to the development of novel chemopreventive approaches for translation into the clinical setting. Both basic and clinical investigators in the program interact extensively with each other and with faculty in other UPCI programs to achieve the programs' research objectives.