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Defining the role of lipids and metabolic factors as risk factor for prostate cancer and prostate cancer aggressiveness. A PhD project

Principal Investigator
Name
Adel Aref
Degrees
MBBCh, MSc. (Clinical Oncology), Ph.D.
Institution
The University of Adelaide Freemasons Foundation Centre for Men’s Health South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute
Position Title
Senior Researcher
Email
About this CDAS Project
Study
PLCO (Learn more about this study)
Project ID
PLCO-272
Initial CDAS Request Approval
Apr 20, 2017
Title
Defining the role of lipids and metabolic factors as risk factor for prostate cancer and prostate cancer aggressiveness. A PhD project
Summary
The aim of this project is to explore the association between metabolic factors ( obesity and altered levels of lipids) and prostate cancer incidence and aggressiveness. Previous data showed inconsistent results regarding these associations. Our preliminary results confirmed the finding that obese men have relatively lower PSA than non obese men in cancer free cohort. This raises the question if obesity leads to delay in prostate cancer diagnosis. In addition, the latest data showed that application of PSA screening did not significantly improve the prostate cancer specific mortality. We aim to explore if there is a need to include metabolic factors in the interpretation of the PSA screening results. The second main aim of this project is to explore the underlying mechanism through which metabolic factors affect prostate cancer incidence and aggressiveness.

For aim 2 “ what is the effect of obesity on prostate cancer aggressiveness?” including the control arm may verify the paradox of aggressiveness versus lower incidence with removing the effect of intervention on the incidence outcome.

For aim 3 “Does obesity leads to delay in prostate cancer diagnosis? “; data from the control arm is required to validate our result from the intervention arm. A potential effect of intervention “being under screening” may lead to masking the effect of obesity on delaying prostate cancer diagnosis.
Aims

1- what is the effect of Obesity on the PSA results in prostate cancer cohort as well as in prostate cancer free cohort?
2- What is the effect of obesity on prostate cancer aggressiveness?
3- Does obesity leads to delay in prostate cancer diagnosis ?
4- Is there a need for Age-metabolic specific PSA model to improve the sensitivity of PSA screening results ?

Collaborators

Dr. Andrew Vincent, University of Adelaide, Freemasons Foundation Centre for Men’s Health, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide, South Australia
Dr. Michael OCallaghan, South Australian Prostate Cancer Clinical Outcomes Collaborative, Adelaide, South Australia , Australia
Dr. Andrew Hoy, The University of Sydney , Sydney , New South Wales, Australia
A/Prof. Lisa Butler, University of Adelaide, Freemasons Foundation Centre for Men’s Health, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide, South Australia
Prof. Gary Wittert, University of Adelaide, Freemasons Foundation Centre for Men’s Health, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide, South Australia