(Washington, D.C.)–Congressman Jim Langevin (RI-02) today announced that Roger Williams Medical Center has been selected by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to receive funding for a clinical trial.

Dr. Richard Junghans, Chief of Surgical Research and Director of the Biotherapeutics Development Lab at Roger Williams, will be awarded approximately $1.2 million over three years through the DoD Prostate Cancer Research Program to conduct a clinical trial of “designer T cells” in men with metastatic prostate cancer. Designer T cells are created by gene therapy with the patient’s blood cells to educate his own immune system to attack the prostate cancer anywhere in the body.

“This prestigious award highlights some of the top-notch research currently taking place in Rhode Island’s medical community,” said Congressman Langevin. “I am so proud that the work being done by Dr. Junghans and Roger Williams has garnered this national recognition, and I am hopeful the upcoming clinical trial will lead to new advancements in our ability to treat prostate cancer.”

Roger Williams was one of only five institutions nationwide to receive Fiscal Year 2005 funding under the DoD Prostate Cancer Research Program. The proposal submitted by Dr. Junghans to DoD received an “outstanding” score from the peer review panel, which found the studies proposed to be “timely and very relevant” and of “critical importance to significantly impact the treatment of prostate cancer.”

“We are very excited by this funding because it allows us to offer our patients a radically new and promising approach to the treatment of advanced prostate cancer,” said Dr. Junghans. “Cancer that has progressed beyond the prostate, to the bones and other organs, has been and remains completely incurable by all current therapies, killing 30,000 American men each year. With this new treatment, we are hoping that we may at last arrive to the point of being able to use the word “cure” in the context of this disease.”

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