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The American Cancer Society has awarded University of Florida pathologist Kenneth A. Iczkowski, M.D., a three-year, $183,000 Research Scholar Grant to study molecular changes on the surface of prostate cancer cells that could someday help scientists predict a patient鈥檚 prognosis.

Iczkowski also recently received a Veterans Affairs Merit Review grant amounting to more than $26,000 to pursue this same line of investigation. Iczkowski holds a dual appointment as an assistant professor of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine at UF鈥檚 College of Medicine and as a pathologist at Gainesville鈥檚 Malcom Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

About 10 million American men have prostate cancer. Most forms of the cancer grow slowly and do not kill the patient. Only about 10 percent are considered advanced at the time of diagnosis. But existing tests don鈥檛 always accurately gauge which cancers are likely to remain confined to the prostate, posing no threat during the patient鈥檚 lifetime, and which might kill.

Researchers hope to someday develop improved diagnostic tools, possibly by capitalizing on the fact that all cells are studded with surface molecules that enable them to interact with their environment. Iczkowski will study samples of benign and cancerous prostate tissue. He is particularly interested in a family of cell surface molecules known as CD44 because research has shown these molecules change when cells turn cancerous. Certain changes may indicate the likelihood cancer will spread, he said.

鈥淲e鈥檙e looking for changes in molecules on the surface of cancer cells that distinguish them from benign,鈥� said Iczkowski, who is affiliated with the UF Shands Cancer Center. 鈥淭hese molecules also influence whether cancer cells are going to spread to lymph nodes, liver, bone, or wherever cancer is prone to go. By studying these molecules and how their expression is altered in cancer, we believe we can determine which prostate cancers are more likely to behave aggressively, and which prostate cancers are going to be more indolent and curable by surgery or radiation.鈥�