Prostate cancer (PrCa) is the most diagnosed cancer in men. In 2024, there is an estimated 299,010 new cases and 35,250 deaths for the United States. The highest incidence is found in Black men. Black men account for 186.1 cases per 100,000 versus 88.6 per 100,000 in other populations averaged. The percent of patients surviving for 5 years is 97% for local and regional disease and 37% for metastatic disease.
The current PrCa Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs) are highly collaborative translational research teams, sharing resources and conducting inter-institutional clinical studies for the prevention, monitoring, and treatment of PrCa. Translational research projects within the prostate SPOREs explore blood and urine biomarkers for risk stratification, germline genetic variants to predict aggressive cancers, the molecular evolution of resistance to androgen deprivation therapies and the development of neuroendocrine prostate cancer, and cellular mechanisms involved in metastatic PrCa. Novel therapeutics are being developed that target the androgen receptor pathway inhibition and DNA damage repair and epigenetic pathways. Immunotherapeutic approaches as well as therapies targeting the tumor microenvironment and many other cellular pathways are also being developed.