Frank Cackowski, M.D./Ph.D.
Office address
Wayne State University and Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute
Department of Oncology and Molecular Therapeutics Research Program
4100 John R Street, HWCRC 715
Detroit, MI 48201
Department
Oncology
Research interests
- Prostate cancer dormancy and recurrence
- Prostate cancer cell cycle and quiescence
- Immune regulation of prostate cancer quiescence
- Hippo signaling in prostate cancer
- Prostate cancer clinical research
Research description
Tumors are heterogonous mixtures of billions of cells, and can change their characteristics over time and by location to adapt to their environment. This includes how some cancer cells adopt characteristics of tissue stem cells, which is important for them to initiate new tumors and survive our attempts at treatment. Sometimes this tumor plasticity extends so far as to allow the tumor to completely change its appearance. For example, in prostate and some other cancers, the cells can change from their typical appearance as abnormal duct lining cells (adenocarcinoma) to neuroendocrine cells that appear as if they had originated from completely different part of the body. Similarly, and possibly as an adaptation mechanism, prostate cancer cells can spread from the primary tumor to distant sites, lay dormant, and then grow into fatal disease years or decades later. These dormant disseminated tumor cells spend much of their time in the resting, or G0 phase of the cell cycle. Analogously, some studies have also shown that most of the cancer stem-like cells are contained within the quiescent, or G0 population. My lab is focused on these overlapping concepts of plasticity, dormancy, and quiescence. We use patient samples, cell culture, animal models, and bioinformatics to understand this biology and develop ways to prevent relapse, deepen treatment responses, and combat treatment resistance.
PubMed - my bibliography
Education/training
B.S. in Biological Sciences with University Honors (2003): Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics (2009): University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
M.D. (2011): University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Internal Medicine Residency (2013): University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Hematology and Medical Oncology Fellowship (2017): University of Michigan