Cancer ABCs has been working in close collaboration with the Broad Institute to develop, launch and recruit men for the essential Metastatic Prostate Cancer Project (see our other posts). The project’s goal is to have thousands and thousands of men with metastatic prostate cancer share their medical records, their DNA and their tumor tissue so that we can understand the genomics of this disease, learn how it progresses and how resistance to treatments develop.
The project differs from many other research projects as all the data is immediately shared with the entire research community without any strings attached or any cost. Additionally, all findings are shared with all project participants (you) through regular data releases that are sent directly to each participant.
Since the project’s launch in January 2018, we have had 650 men with metastatic prostate cancer (advanced prostate cancer) sign up to participate by clicking “Count Me In.” Of these 650 men who have joined the project we have received more than:
• 370 saliva kits
• 500 medical records
• 50 stored tumor samples
• 270 blood samples
The project continues to request, from people who have agreed to participate, their medical records, saliva, blood samples, and tumor tissue, if available. The Project is continuing to analyze medical records and samples every day, which will allow them to continue to expand this shared dataset for researchers.
To date, the project has analyzed genomic, clinical, and patient-reported data from 19 tumor tissue samples from 19 men. The results of these first samples are included in the first data release which was made today - you too can see this informative data at mpcproject.org/data-release.
The Project is hard at work. They are analyzing the next batch of data. The project will release data every six months going forward, with a goal of creating the largest metastatic prostate cancer database of its kind for the entire community
Please see the project’s blog post to see further updates on the project, current outreach work, and new advocacy partners [click here to read the blog post].
If you haven’t already joined the project and you live in the United States and have metastatic prostate cancer, please join us and become a participant. Join us and be “Counted In.” by clicking this link.
