December 2022

UROLOGY

SPONSORED RESEARCH FUNDING

Prostate Cancer Foundation 
Sarki A. Abdulkadir, MD, PhD, vice chair for Research in the Department of Urology and the John T. Grayhack, MD, Professor of Urological Research at Northwestern Medicine, received one of four inaugural Class of 2022 TACTICAL (Therapy ACceleration To Intercept CAncer Lethality) Awards from the Prostate Cancer Foundation. The foundation’s $30 million program will support cross-disciplinary pioneering research toward the goal of developing 21st century therapies for the most life-threatening form of prostate cancer.

National Cancer Institute 
Adam B. Murphy, MD, assistant professor of Urology at Northwestern Medicine, was awarded a R01 for his proposal “Using Prostate Health Index and MRI in Combination for Cost-effectively Detecting High-Grade Prostate Cancer in Minorities.” 
Recent studies highlight significant promise for multi-parametric MRI and prostate health index in biopsy-naïve men to help around 25% of men avoid unnecessary prostate biopsies while missing few clinically significant prostate cancers. However, there is a need to increase the number of men who can safely avoid biopsy and expand it to Black and Hispanic men. In conjunction with Shilajit D. Kundu, MD, Dr. Murphy will conduct a comparative effectiveness study to identify strategies using prostate health index and multi-parametric MRI alone, in series and in parallel to develop race-specific biopsy strategies with prostate health index and multi-parametric MRI. 

V Foundation for Cancer Research
Shad Thaxton, MD, PhD, associate professor of Urology at Northwestern Medicine, was awarded a 2022 V Foundation Translational Award for his application, “Liquid Biopsy to Measure Novel Biomarker of ImmunoMetabolic Cancer Risk (IMCR).” Dr. Thaxton seeks to develop a blood test that provides an accurate measure of ongoing cell stress and metabolic changes to gauge an individual’s risk of cancer. Dr. Thaxton has already developed tools that enable rapid measurement of signals in certain blood cells attributed to changes in cell stress and metabolism. This study will determine if these signals can be used to quantify cancer risk.

AUA Humanitarian Grant
Congratulations to 2022 Humanitarian Grant Program Recipient, Stephanie J. Kielb, MD. She is the chief of Reconstruction and Neurourology in the Department of Urology and a professor of Urology at Northwestern Medicine.

Dr. Kielb works with the International Organization for Women & Development (IOWD). In concert with the Rwandan Ministry of Health, IOWD conducts three missions per year to treat patients who have little or no access to fistula surgery.

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