University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI)

Clinical Studies

A diverse portfolio of clinical trials for patients with prostate cancers is currently being conducted at UPCI and UPMC Cancer Centers, encompassing studies of chemoprevention, perioperative therapy, and treatment of advanced disease. A few examples of ongoing PCP trials are described below.

When IITs are not available for certain categories of patients with prostate and urologic cancers, especially those in the community sites where early phase clinical trials are too complex logistically, those patients still have access to novel investigational therapeutics and pivotal phase III trials though select industry-sponsored studies that are open at UPCI. The clinical trials portfolio spans the disease spectrum, encompassing chemoprevention, perioperative therapy, and treatment of advanced disease in patients with prostate cancer.

Ongoing Clinical Studies

• Prostate-specific vaccine therapy, if effective and if initiated early (i.e., at the time of initial relapse), offers the prospect of prolonged survival with minimal morbidity. Type-1-polarized DC (αDC1) are 40-fold more potent than the current "gold standard" of cDCs in their ability to induce tumor-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs). PCP members have developed the first clinically applicable protocol to generate type-1 polarized DCs (DC1s or αDC1s). This DC preparation is currently being tested in combination with androgen ablation in a Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of prostate cancer (protocol UPCI 06-070).
• A major factor compromising the efficacy of vaccine therapy is the profound cancer-related immune suppression described in advanced cancer. Work done at the University of Pittsburgh and elsewhere has revealed that patients with prostate cancer have prostate cancer-associated immunosuppression. This can be partially overcome by administering systemic poly-ICLC (polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid stabilized with polylysine and carboxymethylcellulose), a clinically active double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) that has a number of immune enhancing actions. This is currently being tested in a clinical trial entitled, "A Pilot Dose Finding Study of MUC1 Vaccine in Conjunction with Poly-ICLC in Patients with Recurrent and/or Advanced Prostate Cancer" (protocol UPCI 05-086).
• PCP investigators participate in clinical trials sponsored by national cooperative groups. Dr. Jodie Maranchie participates in an ECOG Phase III clinical trial on "Randomized Study of Neo-Adjuvant Docetaxel and Androgen Deprivation Prior to Radical Prostatectomy vs. Immediate Radical Prostatectomy in Patients with High Risk, Clinically Localized Prostate Cancer" (protocol UPCI 07-032). Dr. Ryan Smith (PCP) participates in a RTOG Phase III clinical trial on "Short Term Androgen Deprivation with Pelvic Lymph Node or Prostate only Radiotherapy (SPORT) in Prostate Cancer Patients with a Rising PSA after Radical Prostatectomy" (protocol UPCI 08-012).

Members