Paula Hurley, Ph.D.

Paula J. Hurley, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology of the Department of Medicine and in the Department of Urology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and the Vanderbilt Ingraham Cancer Center. The goal of the Hurley laboratory is to reduce the death and suffering caused by prostate cancer. Cancer localized to the prostate is often curable with treatments such as surgery or radiation therapy; however, once prostate cancer has spread beyond the prostate to other organs or to bone, it is an incurable disease. The Hurley lab focuses on identifying both cancer cell-autonomous and non-cancer cell-autonomous genetic and molecular pathways that promote lethal prostate cancer and cause therapy resistance.The Hurley labreported SPARCL1as a gene down-regulated in high-grade and metastatic prostate cancer that is a significant, independent prognostic marker of disease progression to metastases.SPARCL1 is a secreted extracellular matrix protein that restricts cellular adhesion, migration, and invasion. Work in the lab also focuses on another secreted protein, Asporin. Asporin is expressed by cancer associated fibroblasts, and its increased expression is associated with worse outcomes. Findings support that Asporin broadly impacts many cell types in the tumor microenvironmentand drives metastatic progression.The Hurley lab is also interested in the utility of tumor specific genetic alterations detected in the blood as predictors of therapy resistance.