Ken Pienta, MD

Professional Titles

• Director of Research, The James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute
• Co-Director, Prostate Cancer Research Program, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center

Primary Academic Title

Professor of Urology

Background

Centers and Institutes

• Brady Urological Institute
• Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
• The Johns Hopkins Precision Medicine Center of Excellence for Prostate Cancer

Videos

• #TomorrowsDiscoveries: Treating Prostate Cancer - Urologic Oncologist Kenneth Pienta

Additional Academic Titles

Professor of Oncology, Professor of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences

Contact for Research Inquiries

600 N. Wolfe Street
Marburg 121
Baltimore, MD 21205

Phone: (410) 502-3137
Fax: (410) 955-0833

Research Interests

Biomarker development, Ecology of cancer, Metastasis, Novel therapeutic development, Tumor microenvironment

Lab Website

Kenneth J. Pienta Lab - Lab Website

• The Kenneth J. Pienta laboratory has championed the concept that cancer tumorigenesis and metastasis can best be understood utilizing the principles of Ecology. As a result, the Pienta laboratory is working to develop new treatments for cancer utilizing network disruption.

Research Summary

Dr. Pienta's laboratory has championed the concept that cancer tumorigenesis and metastasis can best be understood utilizing the principles of ecology. Ecologists have studied the population biology of invasive species for decades and have documented their impact on local environments as well as the global ecosystem as a whole. Invasive species start as a native population within a defined community and are then transported by some means to a new environment. In this new environment, the invader either dies off or enters a period of time during which it establishes itself (lag period). It then begins to spread and have an impact on the local environment, disrupting the ecosystem as a whole. This disruption has broad implications for the native species and the broader ecosystem. Biologic traits that result in a robust invasive species include rapid proliferative capacity, adaptation to environmental stress (phenotypic plasticity) and high tolerance to environmental heterogeneity.

The life cycle of invasive species is directly analogous to the study of cancer metastasis. Cancer must grow in a primary site, extravasate and survive in the circulation to then intravasate at a target organ (invasive species survival in transport). Cancer cells often lay dormant at their metastatic site for a long period of time (lag period) before proliferating (invasive spread). Proliferation in the new site has an impact on the target organ microenvironment (ecological impact) and eventually the human host (biosphere impact). Successful treatment of cancer with a single agent is rarely enough to cure a patient without strategically modifying the support systems conducive to survival of cancer. The Pienta laboratory works to develop new treatments for cancer utilizing network disruption.

PubMed

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?cmd=Search&term=Pienta+KJ

Selected Publications

• Amend SR, de Groot AE, Torga G, Axelrod HD, Reyes DK, Valkenburg KC, Glavaris SA, Pienta KJ.  Ten unanswered questions in cancer: "If this is true, what does it imply"?  Am J Clin Exp Urol. 2018 Apr 1;6(2):26-31. 

• Valkenburg KC, de Groot AE, Pienta KJ.Targeting the tumour stroma to improve cancer therapy.  Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2018 Jun;15(6):366-381

• Werner RA, Andree C, Javadi MS, Lapa C, Buck AK, Higuchi T, Pomper MG, Gorin MA, Rowe SP, Pienta KJ. A Voice From the Past: Rediscovering the Virchow Node With Prostate-specific Membrane Antigen-targeted 18F-DCFPyL Positron Emission Tomography Imaging. Urology. 2018 Jul;117:18-21. 

Patents

• Targeting The M2-tumor Associated Macrophage For Cancer Therapy

  The present invention features methods of directly targeting specific cell surface receptors on the M2 macrophage for antibody or nanoparticle directed therapy.

  Targeting the m2-tumor associated macrophage for cancer therapy, 3/12/15
• Human Bone Marrow Endothelial Cell Line And Methods of Use Thereof

  The present invention provides immortalized human bone marrow endothelial cells which are useful for the study of tumor metastasis. In particular, the human bone marrow endothelial cell lines provided by the invention provide an in vitro model system for screening compounds for the ability to reduce, prevent, or inhibit the metastasis of cancer cells to bone tissue.

  US 5925531 A, 7/20/99

Honors

• Who's Who in Healthcare Montclair Who's Who 2010-01-01 00:00:00.000_x000D_ kpienta1 Kenneth James Pienta Core Values Award Prostate Cancer Foundation 2009-01-01 00:00:00.000_x000D_ kpienta1 Kenneth James Pienta Patients' Choice Award 2008-01-01 00:00:00.000_x000D_ kpienta1 Kenneth James Pienta America's Top Doctors for Cancer 2006-01-01 00:00:00.000_x000D_ kpienta1 Kenneth James Pienta Best Doctors in America 2008-01-01 00:00:00.000_x000D_ kpienta1 Kenneth James Pienta America's Top Doctors 2005-01-01 00:00:00.000_x000D_ kpienta1 Kenneth James Pienta Research Team Science Award American Association for Cancer 2007-01-01 00:00:00.000_x000D_ kpienta1 Kenneth James Pienta Alpha Omega Alpha NULL 1988-01-01 00:00:00.000_x000D_ kpienta1 Kenneth James Pienta Student Summer Research Fellowship The Johns Hopkins University 1982-01-01 00:00:00.000_x000D_ mpieprz1 Mary A Pieprzak NULL NULL NULL_x000D_ kteets1 Kristine M. Pietsch NULL NULL NULL_x000D_ dpiggot1 Damani Arnold Piggott NULL NULL NULL_x000D_ npilevs1 Nicole Denise Pilevsky NULL NULL NULL_x000D_ spilla1 Scott Jordan Pilla NULL NULL NULL_x000D_ ipiment1 Isabel Rocha Pimenta NULL NULL NULL_x000D_ jpinco1 Jeffrey Dresdner Pinco NULL NULL NULL_x000D_ mpinder2 Marco Andre Pinder NULL NULL NULL_x000D_ xpinell1 Ximena A Pinell NULL NULL NULL_x000D_ tpisani1 Thomas R. Pisanic NULL NULL NULL_x000D_ mpishva1 Michael Jon Pishvaian NULL NULL NULL_x000D_ ipitha1 Ian Pitha NULL NULL NULL_x000D_ jpitman3 Jenifer Pitman NULL NULL NULL_x000D_ tpittma8 Troy Allen Pittman NULL NULL NULL_x000D_ spitts4 Samantha Irene Pitts NULL NULL NULL_x000D_ rplatt1 Rheanna Edith Platt NULL NULL NULL_x000D_ eplatz1 Elizabeth A. Platz NULL NULL NULL_x000D_ mplitt3 Max Aaron Plitt NULL NULL NULL_x000D_ jpluzni1 Jennifer L. Pluznick Henry Pickering Bowditch Award Lectureship American Physiological Society 2019-04-01 00:00:00.000_x000D_ jpluzni1 Jennifer L. Pluznick Hamilton Smith Award for Innovative Research Johns Hopkins 2019-07-01 00:00:00.000_x000D_ jpluzni1 Jennifer L. Pluznick TED Talk: You smell with your body, not just your nose", TED: https://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_pluznick_you_smell_with_your_body_not_just_your_nose?language=en, 5/1/17
• Top 1% of physicians, U.S. News and World Report, 1/1/12
• Who's Who, Strathmore, 1/1/12
• Alfred Taubman Scholar Award, Taubman Medical Research Institute, 1/1/11
• League of Research Excellence, University of Michigan Medical School, 1/1/11
• Society of Scholars, Johns Hopkins University, 1/1/11
• Distinguished Mentor of the Year Award, American Urological Association, 1/1/09
• Research Award, Prostate Cancer Foundation, 1/1/04
• Clinical Research Professorship Award, American Cancer Society, 1/1/03
• Research Award, Association for the Cure of Cancer of the Prostate, 1/1/99
• A Leading Faculty Educator, Department of Internal Medicine, 1/1/99
• The Rena Schechter Memorial Lecturer in Cancer Research, Washington University School of Medicine, 1/1/98
• Research Award, Association for the Cure of Cancer of the Prostate, 1/1/93
• Diplomat, The American Board of Internal Medicine, 1/1/90
• Clinical Investigator, The American Board of Internal Medicine, 1/1/88
• Student Scholar, American Urological Association, 1/1/85
• Henry Strong Denison Scholar, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1/1/83

Memberships

• American Association of Cancer Research
• American College of Physicians
• American Society of Clinical Investigators
• American Society of Clinical Oncologists
• American Urologic Association
• Central Society for Clinical Research
• European Association for Cancer Research
• International Bone and Mineral Society
• Metastasis Research Society
• Society for Clinical and Translational Science
• Society of Basic Urologic Research
• Society of Urologic Oncology

Professional Activities

Frederick National Labs, National Cancer Advisory Board, 1/1/12 - 12/1/18