On Sept. 23, 2019, the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center announced they had received a $9.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute’s SPORE (Specialized Program of Research Excellence) for prostate cancer research.

The grant was through the NCI’s SPORE, or Specialized Program of Research Excellence, which funds collaborative, interdisciplinary translational cancer research. The Michigan Prostate SPORE will focus on critical questions regarding how prostate cancer develops, with projects designed to address major barriers and challenges in diagnosis, treatment and metastasis.

The Rogel Cancer Center first received a prostate cancer SPORE grant in 1995, one of the first in the country. It has been continuously funded since then, resulting in several landmark discoveries that have identified key genetic drivers of prostate cancer.