The country’s largest prostate cancer prevention study, the SABOR trial conducted by researchers at the Health Science Center, is adding a new clinical site where men can go to participate.
In addition to its other locations, the San Antonio Center of Biomarkers of Risk for Prostate Cancer (SABOR) soon will see men at the Frederic C. Bartter General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System’s Audie Murphy Division, 7400 Merton Minter Blvd. SABOR appointments begin at the VA on Sept. 29.
The GCRC, funded by the National Institutes of Health, is a successful 24-year partnership of the Health Science Center and the Audie Murphy Division. “The GCRC is a great example of different branches of federal and state government collaborating to operate a successful program,” said GCRC Program Director Michael Lichtenstein, M.D., M.Sc., professor of medicine in the Health Science Center’s division of geriatrics and gerontology and medical director of hospital-based home care at the VA.
SABOR is enrolling men who have not been diagnosed with prostate cancer but have risk factors for the disease. Men 50 or older are prime candidates, as well as men 40 and older who are African Americans or have first-degree relatives (father, grandfather) who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Men are asked to give a blood or tissue sample for genetic testing as part of SABOR. Participants are seen at no charge.
The goal of SABOR is to identify patterns from the samples that point to new biomarkers of prostate cancer formation and progression. These will be integrated with known risk factors to provide a better picture of which men will develop prostate cancer and which men will go on to have high-grade cancers that require aggressive treatment such as surgery. The hope is to identify men whose prostate cancers are benign and thus spare them from the risk of incontinence and impotence, two of the rare but significant complications of prostate removal.
“The General Clinical Research Center’s location in the VA hospital should help our veterans who want to become part of the SABOR program,” said Betsy Higgins, project coordinator in the department of urology at the Health Science Center.
“We are delighted to be able to support the SABOR study and its participants,” commented Dr. Lichtenstein. “Our mission is to support patient-oriented research that leads to improved health of the public. The GCRC is especially interested in helping investigators focused on studying the health problems of South Texans.”
SABOR, under the leadership of Ian M. Thompson, M.D., professor and chairman of urology at the Health Science Center, is supported by major funding from the Early Detection Research Network of the National Cancer Institute. Clinical sites include the Cancer Therapy & Research Center, Brooke Army Medical Center, Wilford Hall Medical Center, the University Health Center Downtown and the Ella Austin Health Center. The SABOR program also has enrolled 1,000 men in Monterrey, Mexico.
The SABOR enrollment of more than 3,000 men includes about 50 percent minorities, a very high figure for a study of this type, researchers say.
Men from Bexar and surrounding counties who would like to participate are invited to call the SABOR office at (210) 567-0214 or the toll-free SABOR number at 1-800-335-4594.
Contact:
Will SansomPhone: (210) 567-2579
E-mail:
Sansom@uthscsa.edu
