Richard Lee, a 2017 PCF Challenge Award recipient, discusses his research on the metabolics of prostate cancer. The upcoming Phase 1 research in men with CRPC is centered around inhibiting the glutaminase pathway in combination with a PARP inhibitor. The rationale for targeting the glutaminase  pathway stems from the fact that cancer cells deplete glucose as a carbon source, a necessary element for the cancer to make biomass, and once depleted tumors need alternate sources. Glutaminase is the rate limiting step for the production of glutamine which gets converted to glutamate which through multiple pathways can provide the biomass needed for the cancer cells to thrive. Blocking the glutaminase pathway in combination with a PARP inhibitor may be synergistic in the treatment of prostate cancer.


Biographies:

Richard J. Lee, MD, PhD GU medical oncologist, Assistant Professor, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center

Alicia Morgans, MD, MPH Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois.