Pair of grants will boost prostate cancer, kidney disease research at Cleveland Clinic

Dr. William Fissell

CLEVELAND, Ohio — New grants will fund Cleveland Clinic research to help control protein loss in the kidneys and prevent disease and develop research tools to explain options and recovery chances in prostate cancer.

The grants, a total of $500,000, are through the American Society of Nephrology and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The two-year, $200,000 nephrology grant will allow Dr. William Fissell to explore how the kidney retains protein. Doctors can predict chronic kidney disease through protein loss in urine. Understanding the kidney’s filtration system will help control the loss of protein and, thus, prevent kidney problems.

Fissell, who maintains a lab at the Lerner Research Institute, has focused much of his research on developing an implantable nanotechnology-based membrane to help with filtration and combat renal failure.

Dr. Andrew Stephenson will use a three-year, $300,000 Robert Wood Johnson grant to better utilize a diagram, known as nomogram, that uses various factors involved with prostate cancer to predict outcomes. The grant will further develop nomograms that present main treatment options for prostate cancer — including prostate removal or radiation therapy — the potential for success and side-effects, so that patients can make decisions based on their needs.

Stephenson is the head of urologic oncology at the Clinic’s Glickman Urological & Kidney Institute, and specializes in robotic prostate surgery and removal.

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