Karen Sfanos, MS, PhD
Highlights
Languages
- English
Gender
FemaleJohns Hopkins Affiliations:
- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Faculty
About Karen Sfanos
Primary Academic Title
Professor of Pathology
Background
Dr. Karen Sfanos is a professor of pathology, oncology, and urology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the cellular and molecular pathology of prostate disease.
Dr. Sfanos and her research team are particularly interested in agents that may lead to chronic prostatic inflammation, such as bacterial infections and prostatic concretions called corpora amylacea. The lab's ongoing studies are aimed at understanding the influence of prostate infections and inflammation on prostate disease including prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The laboratory also focuses on the influence of the microbiome on prostate cancer development, progression, and/or resistance to therapy.
Dr. Sfanos earned her M.S. at the Florida Institute of Technology. She completed her Ph.D. and a fellowship at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
She was awarded a fellowship from the Prevent Cancer Foundation in 2009 and was recognized by the Prostate Cancer Foundation as the Chris and Felicia Evensen Young Investigator in 2012 and by the V Foundation as a V Scholar in 2014.
Centers and Institutes
Additional Academic Titles
Professor of Urology, Professor of Oncology
Research Interests
infections and chronic inflammation, microbiome, molecular pathology, Prostate cancer
Lab Website
The Sfanos Lab - Lab Website
- The Sfanos Lab studies the cellular and molecular pathology of prostate disease at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. We are specifically interested in agents that may lead to chronic inflammation in the prostate, such as bacterial infections and prostatic concretions called corpora amylacea. Our ongoing studies are aimed at understanding the influence of prostate infections and inflammation on prostate disease including prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The laboratory also focuses on the influence of the microbiome on prostate disease development, progression, and/or resistance to therapy.
Research Summary
Dr. Sfanos and her lab study the cellular and molecular pathology of prostate disease. She is specifically interested in agents that may lead to chronic inflammation in the prostate. Ongoing studies in the lab are aimed at understanding the influence of prostate infections and inflammation on prostate disease including prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The laboratory also focuses on the influence of the microbiome on prostate cancer development, progression, and/or treatment.
Dr. Sfanos’ previous studies have demonstrated the presence of multiple microbial species in the prostate of cancer patients and, importantly, many of the organisms identified are consistent with genera associated with inflammation-associated conditions including bacterial prostatitis or urinary tract infections. She works very closely with both genitourinary pathologists as well as epidemiologists in an effort to correlate discoveries in the laboratory with prostate cancer risk as well as disease pathology.
Selected Publications
Sfanos K.S., Bruno T.C., Maris C.H., Xu L., Thoburn C.J., De Marzo A.M., Meeker A.K., Isaacs W.B., Drake C.G. Phenotypic analysis of prostate-infiltrating lymphocytes reveals TH17 and Treg skewing. Clinical Cancer Research. 2008; 14: 3254-3261.
Sfanos K.S., Wilson B.A., De Marzo A.M., Isaacs W.B. Acute inflammatory proteins constitute the organic matrix of prostatic corpora amylacea and calculi in men with prostate cancer. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) U.S.A. 2009; 106: 3443-3448.
Sfanos K.S., Markowski M.C., Peiffer L.B.,Ernst S.E.,White J.R., Pienta K.J., Antonarakis E.S., Ross A.E. Compositional differences in gastrointestinal microbiota in prostate cancer patients treated with androgen axis-targeted therapies. Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases. 2018; 21: 539-548.
Shrestha E., White J.R., Yu S.H., Kulac I., Ertunc O., De Marzo A.M., Yegnasubramanian S., Mangold L.A., Partin A.W., Sfanos K.S. Profiling the urinary microbiome in men with positive versus negative biopsies for prostate cancer. Journal of Urology. 2018; 199(1): 161-171.
Yu S.H., Zheng Q., Esopi D., Luo J., Macgregor-Das A., Antonarakis E.S., Vessella R., Morrissey C., De Marzo A.M., Sfanos K.S. A paracrine role for IL-6 in prostate cancer patients: Lack of production by primary or metastatic tumor cells. Cancer Immunology Research. 2015; 3: 1175-1184.