Physician-scientists with the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute co-authored three of the 25 most important prostate cancer studies published this year, and one runner up, as judged by the Prostate Cancer Foundation. The publications are listed below with their OHSU authors called out in bold type:

Photo: Joshi Alumkal, M.D., Tom Beer, M.D., Julie Graff, M.D., and George Thomas, M.D.

No. 6: Apalutamide Treatment and Metastasis-free Survival in Prostate Cancer

Matthew R. Smith, Fred Saad, Simon Chowdhury, Stéphane Oudard, Boris A. Hadaschik, Julie N. Graff, et al., for the SPARTAN Investigators. New England Journal of Medicine (April 12, 2018)

This clinical trial established the first drug approved for men with prostate cancers that have become resistant to hormone therapy but have not yet spread. OHSU and the VA Portland Health Care System enrolled more subjects than any other trial site in the country. Apalutamide, brand named Erleada, significantly improved metastasis-free survival, a composite endpoint measuring the length of time before tumors metastasize to other parts of the body or until death occurs.

No. 14: Genomic Hallmarks and Structural Variation in Metastatic Prostate Cancer

David A. Quigley, Ha X. Dang, Shuang G. Zhao, Paul Lloyd, Rahul Aggarwal, Joshi J. Alumkal, Adam Foye, Vishal Kothari, Marc D. Perry, Adina M. Bailey, Denise Playdle, Travis J. Barnard, Li Zhang, Jin Zhang, Jack F. Youngren, Marcin P. Cieslik, Abhijit Parolia, Tomasz M. Beer, George Thomas, et al. Cell (July 26, 2018)

Using whole-genome and whole-transcriptome analysis of advanced tumors, researchers put together a comprehensive view of how structural variations in the genome of tumor cells affect critical regulators in metastatic prostate cancer.

No. 15: Clinical and Genomic Characterization of Treatment-Emergent Small-Cell Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer: A Multi-institutional Prospective Study

Rahul Aggarwal, Jiaoti Huang, Joshi J. Alumkal, Li Zhang, Felix Y. Feng, George V. Thomas, Alana S. Weinstein, Verena Friedl, Can Zhang, Owen N. Witte, Paul Lloyd, Martin Gleave, Christopher P. Evans, Jack Youngren, Tomasz M. Beer, et al. Journal of Clinical Oncology (Aug. 20, 2018)

An aggressive subtype of prostate cancer – the treatment-emergent small-cell neuroendocrine subtype – can be found in nearly one fifth of patients with metastatic, hormone-resistant prostate cancer, this study found. Transcriptional profiling can help identify the aggressive subtype – and point to novel therapeutic targets.

Runner up: Radiographic Progression-Free Survival as a Clinically Meaningful End Point in Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer: The PREVAIL Randomized Clinical Trial

Dana E. Rathkopf, Tomasz M. Beer, Yohann Loriot, et al. JAMA Oncology (May 2018)

Drug development for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer has been limited by a lack of useful surrogate end points to use in clinical trials. This study showed that radiographic progression-free survival (as defined by the Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Working Group 2) is a robust and clinically meaningful end point associated with overall survival in enzalutamide-treated patients.

Joshi Alumkal, M.D., is the Wayne D. Kuni & Joan E. Kuni Foundation Endowed Chair for Prostate Cancer Research and an associate professor in the OHSU School of Medicine. Tom Beer, M.D., is the Grover C. Bagby Endowed Chair for Prostate Cancer Research and deputy director of the Knight Cancer Institute. Julie Graff, M.D., is an associate professor of hematology and medical oncology. George Thomas, M.D., is a professor of pathology and director of the OHSU Histopathology Shared Resource