PCaP

PCaP is the North Carolina-Louisiana Prostate Cancer Project. It is a research study funded by the Department of Defense. (The full name of the grant is Racial Differences in Prostate Cancer: Influence of Health Care and Host and Tumor Biology.)

The Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program prioritizes research that will develop effective therapies for advanced prostate cancer or distinguish between indolent and aggressive disease. The focus areas for funded research include biomarker development, genetics, imaging, mechanisms of resistance, survivorship and palliative care, therapy, and tumor and microenvironment biology.

Geographic differences in aggressive prostate cancer within racial groups and differences in mortality rates between North Carolina and Louisiana were the driving factors behind the development of PCaP. PCaP is a multidisciplinary population-based case-only study designed to address racial differences in prostate cancer through a comprehensive evaluation of social, individual and tumor level influences on prostate cancer aggressiveness. At baseline, PCaP enrolled approximately equal numbers of African Americans and Caucasian Americans with newly-diagnosed prostate cancer from Louisiana and North Carolina (2,258 total). In addition to PCaP baseline enrollment, several follow-up studies have been undertaken.

The questions the PCaP study addresses are:

• Does access to health care and its quality affect the severity of prostate cancer?
• Do individual factors like diet, exercise, genes and body weight affect the severity of prostate cancer?
• Are prostate tumors in men with severe cancer different from other prostate tumors?
• Do any (or all) of these factors help explain why African American men are more likely to die of prostate cancer than Caucasian American men?