Dr. James L. Mohler joined the staff of Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) in May 2003, as Chair of the Department of Urology. He also is Associate Director and Senior Vice-President for Translational Research, and founder of the Prostate Program. Dr. Mohler also serves as Professor of Urology at the University at Buffalo (UB) School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
Dr. Mohler came to RPCI after 16 years at the University of North Carolina (UNC), and UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Chapel Hill, NC, where he served as Associate Professor of Surgery, Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Director of the UNC Prostate Cancer Research Program.
Dr. Mohler earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, and competed an internship in Internal Medicine at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, residency training in Surgery and Urology at the University of Kentucky Medical Center, Lexington, and a research fellowship in Urologic Oncology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.
Dr. Mohler is licensed by New York State and North Carolina and is a Diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners and the American Board of Urology and a Fellow with the American College of Surgeons. He also currently maintains his academic appointments of Associate Professor of Surgery and Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UNC.
Dr. Mohler’s research interests focus on understanding the role of the androgen receptor in the growth of prostate cancer. The research laboratory works exclusively on prostate cancer with an emphasis on the role of the androgen receptor in the regulation of prostate cancer growth with particular emphasis on 1) the mechanism of recurrent growth after androgen deprivation therapy and 2) racial differences in the androgen axis. The lab uses image analysis, immunohistochemistry, LASER capture microdissection, molecular analyses (denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, SSCP and direct sequencing) and mass spectrometry to analyze banked human tissues (androgen-stimulated, recurrent and a series of prostate biopsies performed before and after castration in men with advanced prostate cancer), tumors from the androgen-dependent CWR22 human prostate cancer xenograft and various androgen-dependent and recurrent CaP cell lines. Dr. Mohler’s lab has demonstrated recently that “androgen-independent” is probably androgen-dependent, a finding that should result in a paradigm change and novel therapies directed at the androgen receptor and its ligands in men with advanced CaP that have failed standard androgen deprivation therapy. In CaP that has recurred during androgen deprivation therapy, tissue levels of testosterone and dihydrotestosterone are sufficient for androgen receptor activation, the androgen receptor protein is expressed at high levels and the classic androgen-regulated gene, prostate-specific antigen (PSA), is expressed. In addition, castration-recurrent prostate cancer changes its 5-a-reducing activity from type I to type II which suggests a possible role for bi-specific 5-a-reductase inhibitors to induce re-remission. The research is conducted by in collaboration with two laboratories at UNC (Drs. Frank French and Betty Wilson; and Dr. Tal Kafri), the NIEHS Mass Spectrometry Facility (Dr. Ken Tomer) and four laboratories at RPCI (Drs. Candace Johnson, Gary Smith, Sergio Onate and Barbara Foster). This research program is funded primarily by the National Cancer Institute (a program project entitled “Prostate Cancer: Transition to Androgen Independence) and the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program (a novel idea award entitled “Prevention of Development of Recurrent Growth of Prostate Cancer” and the UNC Prostate Cancer Consortium entitled “Racial Differences in Prostate Cancer: Role of Health Care Interaction and Host and Tumor Biology”).
Clinically, he is studying the application of robot-assisted surgery for prostate removal, evaluating the role of observation for some men with prostate cancer and testing novel treatments for advanced prostate cancer.
Dr. Mohler is Chair of the NCCN Prostate Cancer Guideline Committee, Vice-President of the Society for Basic Urologic Research and Vice-Chair of the Urology Committee of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) and is a member of the American Medical Association, American Urological Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association for Cancer Research, American Urological Association and the American College of Surgeons.
Dr. Mohler has authored or co-authored more than 150 publications and book chapters and a book, "Androgen Action in Prostate Cancer." He serves on the editorial board of The Prostate, Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, Journal of Robotic Surgery, Therapeutic Advances in Urology and Hormones and Cancer, and reviews for several journals including Cancer, Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research, Journal of Urology and Urology.
Dr. Mohler is a co-founder of AndroBioSys, Inc. which is pioneering new human tissue-based models for drug testing and developing new treatments for prostate disease.
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