Faculty
Celestia S. Higano, MD
Professor
Department of Medicine
Division of Oncology
Professor, Department of Urology
Mailing Address
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
825 Eastlake Ave E, MS: G4-830
Seattle, WA 98109-1023
Admin Contact
206.288.1152
Fax: 206.288.1196
Specialty / Expertise
Genitourinary oncology with a focus on prostate and testicular cancers
Research Interests
New agents for treatment of prostate cancer; use of intermittent androgen deprivation therapy (ADT); the effect of ADT and intermittent ADT on cognition, bone density, lipids, testosterone recovery, time to develop castration resistance; the effect of exercise to attenuate the effects of ADT; new drug development and clinical design; immunotherapy for prostate cancer.
Current Research Projects
Principal Investigator. A phase II extension study of XL184 in patients with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer after docetaxel.
Principal Investigator. A randomized, multicenter, single blind study in men with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer to evaluate sipuleucel-T (Provenge) manufactured with different concentrations of PA2024
Principal Investigator. PREVAIL: A multinational phase 3 placebo-controlled study of oral MDV3100 in chemotherapy-naïve patients with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer
Principal Investigator. Randomized, double-blind, phase 3 trial to compare the efficacy of ipilimumab vs placebo in asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic patients with metastatic chemotherapy-naïve castration resistant prostate cancer
Principal Investigator. A Randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, phase 3 study evaluating the clinical benefit of adding custirsen to docetaxel retreatment/prednisone as an option for second-line therapy in men with castrate resistant prostate cancer who have pain
Principal Investigator. A randomized phase 3 study comparing standard first-line dDocetaxel/prednisone to docetaxel/prednisone in combination with custirsen (OGX-011) in men with vetastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer
Principal Investigator. A randomized phase 2 study of MLN8237, an aurora a kinase inhibitor, or no MLN8237 in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer receiving a sstandard docetaxel/prednisone regimen, preceded by a phase 1 dose-escalation study
Principal Investigator. An open-label, phase 1/2 safety, pharmacokinetic, and proof-of-concept study of ARN-509 in patients with progressive advanced castration-resistant prostate cancer
Principal Investigator. A randomized phase II study of intermittent chemotherapy with maintenance GM-CSF in patients with previously untreated metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer.
Principal Investigator. A phase 1b/2 study to assess the safety and efficacy of AMG 102 in combination with mitoxantrone and prednisone in subjects with previously treated castrate resistant prostate cancer.
Co-investigator. NIH/NCCA 1U19AT006028-01A1, Bastyr/UW Oncomycology Translational Research Center Principal Investigators: Leanna J Standish PhD and Mary L Disis MD.
Principal Investigator. Department of Defense: W81XWH-07-1-0097, Prostate Cancer Research Clinical Consortium – One of 13 Research Sites in the United States
Training
Dr Higano received her MD from University of Massachusetts Worcester, Massachusetts. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota. She was a Hematology/Oncology Fellow at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA. She was an attending physician at the Seattle VA Medical Center for 6 years before returning to the University Cancer Center, and then the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance where she is now a Professor of Medicine and Urology and Member, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Selected Publications
Scher HI, Halabi S, Tannock I, Morris M, Sternberg C, Carducci M, Eisenberger MA, Higano CS, Bubley GJ, Dreicer R, Petyrlak D, Kantoff P, Heller G, Basch E, Kelly WK, Figg WD, Small EJ, Beer TM, Wilding G, Martin A, Hussain M. Design and endpoints of Phase 2 trials for patients with progressive prostate cancer and castrate levels of testosterone. Recommendation of the Prostate Cancer Trials Working Group (PCWG2). J Clin Oncol 2008 26(7):1148-1159.
Higano CS, Quick DP, Bushnell D, Sartor O. Safety analysis of repeated high doses of samarium-153 lexidronam in men with hormone-naïve prostate cancer metastatic to bone. Clin Genitourin Cancer 2008 6(1):40-45.
Higano CS, Corman JM, Smith DC, Centeno AS, Steidle CP, Gittleman M, Simons JW, Sacks N, Aimi J, Small EJ. Phase 1/2 dose-escalation study of GM-CSF-secreting, allogeneic cellular immunotherapy for metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Cancer 2008 113(5):975-984.
Cherrier MM, Aubin S, Higano CS. Cognitive and mood changes in men undergoing intermittent combined androgen blockade for non-metastatic prostate cancer. Psychooncology 2009 18(3):237-247. Epub 2008 Jul 17.
Hussain M, Goldman B, Tangen C, Higano CS, Petrylak DP, Wilding G, Akdas AM, Small EJ, Donnelly BJ, Collette L, Burch PA, DiPaola RS, Crawford ED. Prostate-specific antigen progression predicts overall survival in patients with metastatic prostate cancer: data from Southwest Oncology Group Trials 9346 and 9916. J Clin Oncol 2009 27(15):2450-2456. Epub 2009 Apr 20.
Cherrier MM, Borghesani PR, Shelton AL, Higano CS. Changes in neuronal activation patterns in response to androgen deprivation therapy: A Pilot study. BMC Cancer 2010 10(1):1. Epub ahead of print.
Scher HI, Beer TM, Higano CS, Anand A, Taplin ME, Efstathiou E, Rathkopf D, Shelkey J, Yu EY, Alumkal J, Hung D, Hirmand M, Seely L, Morris MJ, Danila DC, Humm J, Larson S, Fleisher M, Sawyers CL; Prostate Cancer Foundation/Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium. Antitumour activity of MDV3100 in castration-resistant prostate cancer: a phase 1-2 study. Lancet. 2010 Apr 24;375(9724):1437-46. Epub 2010 Apr 14. PubMed PMID: 20398925.
Higano CS, Small EJ, Schellhammer P, Yasothan U, Gubernick S, Kirkpatrick P, Kantoff PW: Sipuleucel-T. Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2010 July;9(7):513-514. PubMed PMID: 20592741.
Yu EY, Gulati R, Telesca D, Jiang P, Tam S, Russell KJ, Nelson PS, Etzioni RB, Higano CS. Duration of the first off treatment period is prognostic for time to castration resistance and death in men with prostate cancer treated on a prospective trial of intermittent androgen deprivation. J Clin Oncol 2010; 28(16):2668-2673. Epub April 26, 2010. PMID: 20421544.
Kantoff PW, Higano CS, Shore ND, Berger ER, Small EJ, Penson DF, Redfern CH, Ferrari AC, Dreicer R, Sims RB, Xu Y, Frohlich MW, Schellhammer PF; IMPACT Study Investigators. Sipuleucel-T immunotherapy for castration-resistant prostate cancer. N Engl J Med. 2010 Jul 29;363(5):411-22. PubMed PMID: 20818862.
Last updated: May 2011