The Andy Russell Celebrity Classic has been supporting the work of the Walter L. Bent Laboratory in support of prostate cancer research and the C. Andrew Russell Laboratory for Head and Neck Cancer Research.

These labs were funded with the contributions of the Andrew Russell golf outing totaling $425,000. Since the payments were completed, monies have been going to the Department of Urology and specifically supporting the work of Dr. Joel Nelson.

Currently in the Laboratory for Head and Neck Cancer, research is being conducted by Robert Ferris, MD, PhD, assistant professor of otolaryngology. He is working to characterize the role of immune function on tumor control in patients with head and neck cancer. Most recently, Dr. Ferris has been involved in collaboration with Albert DeLeo, PhD, professor of pathology, to validate an exciting new therapeutic vaccine strategy that targets the tumor-suppressing gene p53. Previous research has indicated that tumors with mutant p53 also present non-mutant p53 peptides on the cell surface. When combined with dendritic cells, these p53 peptides may induce an immune response, decreasing the chance of cancer recurrence and the formation of secondary tumors. The hypothesis that Dr. Ferris is testing is that the combination of a Th-defined peptide with optimized p53 peptides in a DC-based vaccine will facilitate the generation of anti-wt p53 CTL in immunized patients with SCCHN.

The Walter L. Bent Laboratory recruited Laure Croisille, MD, PhD at the end of 2003 as a member of the "Stem Cell Research" program. She completed a residency and fellowship in medical biology, with a major training in hematology and defended a PhD thesis on the biology of hematopoietic (i.e. blood cell-forming) stem cells. At the UPCI, Dr. Croisille is working to identify human prostate cancer (CaP) stem cells by developing a comprehensive approach to identify cell surface molecular 'markers' (that is, molecules that are expressed exclusively in a given cell type) that can be used to select the most immature cells in prostate tissue to enable the selection of subpopulations of cells by flow cytometry, and to validate stem cell function of these selected cells using a combination of in vitro and in vivo assays.

The aim of her research program is to identify, isolate, and characterize the putative tumorigenic subpopupation of cells in prostate cancer and to precisely determine its origin (for example, are these cells the same stem cells that mediate normal prostate development?). She will study tissue samples from primary prostate tumors obtained at the time of surgery, and from metastatic sites (e.g.lymph nodes or bone), obtained from patients after informed consent. Dr. Croisille aims to identify markers that can be used to distinguish the tumorigenic and metastatigenic cells from the non-tumorigenic/non-metastatigenic ones. Prostate cancer epithelial cells will be labeled with different tagged antibodies recognizing such markers, including antigens known to be expressed either on normal prostate stem cells or on breast cancer stem cells, or on normal stem cells in other tissues. Labeled cells will then be analyzed by flow cytometry, an automated technique that distinguishes and thoroughly characterizes subpopulations of cells according to the molecular markers they display.

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