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Urologic Oncology Branch

Research

The Urologic Oncology Branch conducts clinical and basic research designed to develop better methods for detection, prevention, and therapy of patients with genitourinary malignancies. The primary focus of the Urologic Oncology Branch is the study of the genes associated with initiation and progression of kidney and prostate cancers.

In the Urologic Oncology Branch, patients with hereditary forms of genitourinary malignancies, von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease, hereditary papillary renal carcinoma (HPRC), and hereditary prostate carcinoma are evaluated and treated by a multidisciplinary team. In the laboratory, studies are under way to determine the molecular mechanisms of kidney cancer and prostate cancer. The kidney cancer disease genes, the VHL gene, and the HPRC genes are studied. Studies of molecular genetics of renal carcinoma, including the role of the recently identified VHL tumor suppressor gene-the disruption of whose processes causes acquired or hereditary cancer-are under investigation. Studies of the subcellular localization and identification, both of the associated proteins and of the function of the VHL protein, are in progress, as well as the genomic and cytogenetic changes associated with the initiation of urologic malignancies. The role of tumor suppressor genes in prostate cancer is also under investigation. Study of the molecular biological changes associated with hereditary and sporadic prostate cancer is being carried out. This branch utilizes the findings of the molecular genetics of genitourinary malignancies to develop better methods for early diagnosis of both the hereditary and the nonhereditary (sporadic) forms of urologic malignancies.

This page was last updated on 10/14/2008.