Roswell Park Cancer Institute provides comprehensive, individualized prostate cancer care for about 200 inpatient admissions and over 7,000 outpatient visits annually.

The Genitourinary Center of Roswell Park concentrates on the diagnosis, management and treatment of benign and malignant tumors of the adrenal gland, kidney, bladder, prostate and testis, as well as other less common tumors. 14,500 cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed annually in New York State. 9,300 cases originate in Upstate New York and 1,400 cases are from the Western New York region according to the New York State Cancer Registry.

As a result of the PSA test developed at Roswell Park by T. Ming Chu, PhD, DSc, and colleagues, prostate cancer can now be detected five to ten years earlier than with a digital rectal exam. Roswell Park scientists built on his work to identify the Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA), now used as a target for new treatments and diagnostic imaging for advanced prostate cancer. Roswell Park scientists also developed LNCaP, the most studied prostate cancer cell line in the world.

The Prostate Cancer Center at Roswell Park offers the most advanced treatments available. The Minimally Invasive Surgery Center opened in 2005 and features the most advanced technology for minimally invasive surgery. Minimally invasive surgery utilizes incisions less than half an inch in size. Advantages include a shorter hospital stay and faster recovery, less blood loss, less pain, and faster recovery of urinary control. Roswell Park also provides a full range of radiation oncology treatments and is the only institution in Western New York equipped with Trilogy, a multimodal image-guided radiation therapy system that can deliver 3D conformal radiation therapy, intensity modulated radiation therapy, stereotactic radiosurgery, fractionated stereotactic radiosurgery, and intensity modulated radiosurgery. Trilogy can deliver radiation over 60% faster than conventional linear accelerators and it is precise enough to pinpoint an area with a diameter as small as one millimeter. This technology dramatically reduces side effects by blocking the exposure of healthy tissue on the tumor periphery, and makes it possible to deliver much higher doses of radiation to the tumor itself.

Our multi-disciplinary team includes pathologists, surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, radiologists, residents and fellows, nurses, physician assistants and nurse practitioners, geneticists, psychosocial support staff, and physical and occupational therapists, all specializing in the care of cancer patients.

Regular clinical case conferences bring pathologists together with the other members of the patient’s medical team to review pathology, radiology and treatment approaches in a multidisciplinary fashion. Because Roswell Park focuses only on cancer, its pathologists are highly skilled in the diagnosis and staging of the disease. Expertise in staging is especially critical for cases of prostate cancer, as subtle differences in a patient’s Gleason Score can make an important difference in the recommended treatment plan. Members of the pathology team meet daily to discuss cases of special concern and this collaboration is enhanced by access to a microscope that enables up to 10 pathologists to view images simultaneously. The Roswell Park pathology team includes the only pathologist in the region with subspecialty training in genitourinary cancer.

Clinical research studies are seeking answers to the most challenging questions in the area of urologic cancer. Roswell Park investigators have recently demonstrated that prostate cancer that recurs during androgen deprivation therapy may do so by developing the ability to synthesize its own testicular androgens to feed its growth. New approaches to the treatment of advanced prostate cancer seek to prevent synthesis of testicular androgens or destroy the receptor for those androgens. Roswell Park investigators lead the nation in developing vitamin D based therapies in laboratory and clinical studies. Some current studies focus on the potential of vitamin D to halt the growth of new blood vessels that feed the tumor; to boost the effectiveness of other therapies for advanced prostate cancer; and, in combination with other agents, to treat prostate cancer that is progressing despite androgen deprivation.

Roswell Park researchers have also found that vitamin D deficiency is common among prostate cancer patients and studies of appropriate replacement therapy are in progress. Roswell Park is a world renowned center for research on the use of selenium for the prevention of prostate cancer. Selenium also enhances the effects of chemotherapy.