The Louisiana Cancer Research Consortium (LCRC) is a cancer research partnership created by the Louisiana State Legislature in 2002. It provides a structure under which the best and brightest minds at the State's leading research institutions come together and collaborate to better understand cancer.
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center and Tulane University School of Medicine were the original two partners. In 2007, Xavier University of Louisiana was added as a partner, and Ochsner Health System joined in 2009.
Through the LCRC, Dr. Sartor is actively collaborating with fellow scientists at LSU, and more collaborations are anticipated. These increased opportunities for collaboration and synergy are what the LCRC is all about and ultimately aids in speeding the progress of research.
Dr. Oliver Sartor
Dr. Sartor is a world-renowned prostate cancer expert and the only medical oncologist specializing in prostate cancer in the state of Louisiana.
gunning for a cure
Gunning for a Cure hits this target through an annual skeet shooting competition. All proceeds from this event go directly to Dr. Sartor's Prostate Cancer Research Fund to assist him and his colleagues in accomplishing their goal of curing prostate cancer.
mission & vision
Improving the health of men by discovering the means to treat prostate cancer, while ultimately aiming to develop a cure.
Three Ph.D. scientists are now being supported by the philanthropic funds raised by our supporters. One scientist is predominately responsible for administering the database that links patient clinical data to tissue samples and consents. She is also responsible for coordination of specimen collection from prostate cancer patients, specimen analysis, and the dissemination of these specimens to the three research laboratories (in addition to our own) with which we are currently collaborating. Another scientist is working to develop a new assay for drug development. This is a high-risk but potentially high-reward project. And a third scientist, recently hired as a molecular biologist, is working toward the definition of new molecular assays for genetic characterization of cancers. His laboratory efforts are designed to better understand the molecular underpinnings of cancer. Philanthropic funds also support a laboratory technician who handles and records specimens and does basic purification procedures for DNA and RNA. Funds raised are also used to support the basic laboratory materials and reagents required for our laboratory work.
A clay shooting competition benefiting Dr. Oliver Sartor's Prostate Cancer Research Fund.
Proceeds from Gunning for a Cure are used to support these and other prostate cancer research initiatives being pursued
by Dr. Sartor and his collaborate prostate cancer team.
Between 2010-2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved six new drugs for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. Dr. Sartor played a lead role in the development of two of these drugs and served in an advisory role for two others. This is unprecedented progress, as these are the first new treatment options offering hope for men with advanced disease since 2004, and they were only possible through large, multi-institutional clinical research trials.
Because of the vital importance of novel treatment options like these, Dr. Sartor zealously focuses much of his time on better understanding advanced prostate cancer and the development of new drugs that make a difference for patients with this disease. Additionally, Dr. Sartor and his team of collaborators, including basic researchers and physician scientists at Tulane, LSU, and other institutions, are trying to better understand the genetics of prostate cancer in more details. The project involves the collection of clinical data and complex genetic testing of tissue samples from men with various stages of prostate cancer in an effort to determine what type of genetic defects contribute to cancer risk and progression. This long-term research project could yield important insights into prostate cancer not only for the subjects and their families, but for a variety of other patients as well. Though it is an extremely difficult task, there is also an effort to develop a new class of prostate cancer drugs via basic laboratory research.
Dr. Sartor and his team of collaborators have utilized the $742,000 raised through Gunning for a Cure across a variety of projects, including 1) the collection of clinical data and complex genetic testing of tissue samples from men with various stages of prostate cancer in an effort to determine what type of genetic defects contribute to cancer risk and progression; 2) an effort to develop a new class of prostate cancer drugs via basic laboratory research; and 3) basic laboratory research designed to better understand the molecular underpinnings of cancer. GFC funds have also been used to purchase basic laboratory materials and reagents required for the team’s laboratory work.