Dan Gioeli (Photo by Sanjay Suchak, University Communications)
Cancer researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have identified a key to controlling the growth and progression of prostate cancer, the second most common cancer in men. The researchers have dubbed this key “HULLK,” and they believe it could be used to target and stop the progression of a cancer that kills more than 30,000 American men every year.
“We have uncovered a novel non-coding RNA that may drive prostate cancer,” said senior researcher Dan Gioeli of UVA’s Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology and the UVA Cancer Center. “This discovery could lead to new biomarkers of prostate cancer and more effective therapies for advanced prostate cancer.” Read more in UVA Today.
The researchers have published their findings in the scientific journal Molecular Cancer. The article is open access, meaning anyone may read it online for free. The research team consisted of Huy Q. Ta, Hilary Whitworth, Yi Yin, Mark Conaway, Henry F. Frierson Jr, Moray J. Campbell, Ganesh V. Raj and Gioeli.
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute, grant R01 CA178338; the Paul Mellon Urologic Cancer Institute; and by the UVA Cancer Center Patients & Friends Research Fund.