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Higgins announces $221,000 grant for Roswell Park Cancer Institute

by jmaloni

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Tue, Apr 1st 2014 07:00 pm

National Cancer Institute funding will go toward studying prostate cancer in African Americans

Congressman Brian Higgins, a member of the House Cancer Caucus, announced Roswell Park Cancer Institute has been awarded $221,589 in grant funding from the National Cancer Institute to go toward research into the disproportionate prevalence of prostate cancer in African Americans.

"I am continuously impressed by the groundbreaking research happening at Roswell Park Cancer Institute toward the goal of better understanding and ultimately finding a cure for cancer," Higgins said. "This funding is critical to helping understand the one of the most important risk factors for prostate cancer."

"African American men have the highest incidence rate for prostate cancer in the United States and are more than twice as likely as white men to die of the disease," said Shahriar Koochekpour, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of cancer genetics, urology and oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. "This grant will allow Roswell Park to research whether elevated levels of a certain amino acid, glutamate, and its receptor in African American men can predict the aggressiveness of prostate cancer and could possibly lead to better diagnostic abilities for detecting this cancer or providing novel therapeutic opportunities."

Higgins has consistently called up for a strong investment in medical research, arguing researchers need certainty in funding to make progress.

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