Dr. Pollack’s research interests have centered primarily on the management of prostate cancer with radiotherapy (RT), the role and length of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), radiation dose escalation, radiation fractionation, small molecule/gene/viral vector targeted therapy, immunomodulation, prostate cancer patient disparities, and markers of outcome (tissue biopsy, liquid biopsy and imaging markers). He co-led the genitourinary translational research program (GU TRP) in the NRG cooperative group for several years and now serves as GU TRP co-chair emeritus. He published a series of papers on biomarkers that predict response to RT ± ADT for men treated on cooperative group trials. Many of these biomarkers are potential treatment targets and some of these targets have been investigated in his laboratory. Dr. Pollack’s quantitative imaging research on men with prostate cancer has been funded by the NCI for several years. Dr. Pollack has been the PI on several clinical trials, including a current randomized trial at UM that provides the platform for quantitative imaging marker studies centered on defining prostate habitats with aggressive phenotypes associated with histopathologic factors, radiomics, and transcriptomics, and circulating tumor cells. He is also the lead PI on a national RTOG/NRG study (SPPORT, 0534) prostate cancer post-prostatectomy radiotherapy trial that successfully reached the accrual goal of over 1700 men and is pending publication.
