Urology
Our Team
Our Researchers
Yi-Fen Lee, Ph.D.
Research Overview
For the urology department, Dr. Lee is using prostate cancer as a model to examine the anti-cancer effects of Vitamin D. We get Vitamin D naturally from milk, some vegetables and organ meats, and by exposure to the sun. In technical terms, Dr. Lee is studying the chemo-preventive, anti-proliferative, anti-invasive, and anti-angiogenesis (blood vessel formation) effects of Vitamin D.
In non-technical terms, this means she’s trying to answer three specific questions: Can Vitamin D inhibit or stop the growth of cancer tumors? Can it inhibit the spread of cancer from one tissue or organ to another? Can it stop new blood vessels from forming in a tumor? (Blood vessels help the tumor steal nutrition from healthy areas of the body; stopping the formation of new blood vessels can help “starve” tumors so they can’t grow.) This research begins “in the test tube,” using prostate cancer cells, then moves on to animal models, using mice that have been genetically engineered to have prostate cancer.
Another of Dr. Lee’s cancer related projects concerns using a combination of Vitamin D and the group of drugs known as COX-2 inhibitors to treat cancer. Using Vitamin D alone can have negative side effects. Evidence suggests that using a combination of compounds may reduce those adverse effects.
Dr. Lee is also working on a very exciting research project: using genetically engineered mice to study aging and aging related human diseases such as cancer. Dr. Lee has identified a gene that seems to be connected to aging. When a mouse is born without that gene, it ages prematurely and its lifespan is greatly reduced.
The gene has not previously been studied in depth. But, says Dr. Lee, “it is an amazing gene” and may prove to be very important to the understanding of human aging and longevity, even to cancer. She is now examining how the gene regulates the cell’s response to stress that causes damage to DNA, as well as how the gene promotes the DNA repair that protects cells from more harm. DNA damage that is not repaired accelerates aging. Her study also aims to mechanistically elucidate the roles of aging in the etiology of human cancer, such as prostate.
Faculty Title
Associate Professor, Departments of Urology and Pathology and Lab Medicine
Education
University of Wisconsin, Madison - Ph.D. Endocrinology, 1997
Contact Information
University of Rochester
School of Medicine and Dentistry
Department of Urology
601 Elmwood Ave, Box 626
Rochester, New York 14642
Medical Center Room #: 1-6940
Phone: (585)
275-9702
Fax: (585) 756-4133
Email: yifen_lee@urmc.rochester.edu