Research / Clinical Summary

Carlos Carrera, MD Associate Clinical Professor, Medicine Tumor Growth, Invasion & Metastasis Program Contact by Email

Other Leadership Roles:
Regulatory Advisor for Protocol Review & Monitoring System (PRMS)

I am the principal investigator on three institutional clinical trials that test biochemical rationale-driven novel hypotheses. Two of these trials study the effect of the antimetabolite L-alanosine in non-small cell lung cancers and in gliomas that are shown in our laboratory to harbor homozygous deletion of the methylthioadenosine phosphorylase gene (MTAP). Because this gene lies in close proximity to the tumor suppressor p16INK4a on chromosome 9p21, we have found a significant proportion of NSCLC, glioma, and childhood T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias to have MTAP deletions (collaborators: Drs. Dennis Carson and Alice Yu). MTAP gene status to determine patient eligibility is assayed by polymerase chain reaction using laser capture microdissection of archived pathology specimens.

A third clinical trial will test the effect of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug etodolac in prostate cancer patients with biochemical evidence of persistent disease or recurrence after definitive local therapy. Basic research at UCSD has shown that both enantiomers of commercially available racemic etodolac induce apoptosis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells and prostate cancer primary organ culture specimens. In contrast, normal lymphocytes and normal prostatic epithelium are far less affected. This trial will determine if daily oral etodolac can stabilize or reduce serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels when this marker has started to rise after prostate cancer surgery or radiation. In addition, I am currently conducting studies of both R- and S-etodolac stereoisomers, purified at UCSD, in a prostate cancer xenograft model using immunodeficient mice.