Pioneering research to create better solutions for prostate cancer

Providence St. Jude Crosson Cancer Institute oncologists are aggressively pursuing new answers to metastatic prostate cancer, including research into an innovative immunotherapy called AMG 509. We are one of only a few dozen hospitals in the world and just three in California to offer Phase I trials of this first-in-class antibody capable of targeting prostate cancer cells. 

The AMG 509 antibody binds to two different proteins, one commonly found on the surface of prostate cancer cells and one on the immune system’s T-cells. “AMG 509 triggers an activation of the patient’s T cells and redirects them to cluster on and eradicate cancer cells,” explains Yung Lyou, MD, a Crosson Cancer Institute genitourinary oncologist who specializes in prostate, kidney and bladder cancers.

Men with metastatic prostate cancer who have not responded to or refused a taxane regimen are currently being enrolled. To learn more about any of the research trials currently underway for a wide range of cancers, please call our oncology research department at (714) 446-5177.