Health Sciences researcher to benefit from Movember grant
Khalid Al-Nedawi, a researcher in the Department of Medicine, is among 40 grant recipients across the country funded by Prostate Cancer Canada.
A McMaster researcher testing a promising new biological marker for diagnosing prostate cancer has received a Movember Discovery Grant.
Khalid Al-Nedawia, a researcher in the Department of Medicine, is among 40 new grant recipients across the country funded by Prostate Cancer Canada. Each recipient of a Discovery Grant will receive up to $200,000 over a two-year term. The funds will be used to further innovation in prostate cancer research, and focus on a broad range of topics — from basic biological science to population health.
For his part, Al-Nedawi is assessing the potential of the so-called “biomarker” to tell prostate cancer patients from normal subjects, including its ability to predict the metastasis of prostate cancer and its ability to differentiate between prostate cancer and non-cancerous conditions.
For decades, the standard biomarker for prostate cancer diagnosis was prostate specific antigen (PSA), although many studies have confirmed it can’t differentiate between benign and life-threatening tumors. This leads to a large number of unnecessary biopsies and the overtreatment of low-risk patients, Al-Nedawi explains.
Al-Nedawia will receive $194,000 for his research project, “The role of microvesicular-PTEN in prostate cancer: a diagnostic potential.”
