Prostate Cancer Center of Excellence
Our Mission
The mission of the Prostate Cancer Center of Excellence (PC-COE) is to provide superior clinical care and conduct multidisciplinary research on prostate cancer to improve outcomes in both quantity and quality of life for men affected by prostate cancer and in doing so, benefit both prostate cancer patients and their families.
Our Goals
The Prostate Cancer Center of Excellence:
- Increases outstanding collaborative multi-disciplinary research
- Promotes excellence in providing superior clinical care for patients
- Increases the number of clinical trials offered to patients
- Creates a distinct training program for the next generation of scientists
- Strengthens fundraising for prostate cancer research
- Promotes community outreach and research to decrease racial disparities
- Increases name recognition of the care and research at MCW
Prostate Cancer Center of Excellence Leadership

Marja Nevalainen, MD, PhD
Director, Prostate Cancer Center of Excellence
Professor, Eminent Scholar, Department of Pathology and Pharmacology & Toxicology; Assistant Dean of Research, Medical College of Wisconsin; Associate Director (Education), Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center

William Hall, MD
Clinical Co-Director, Prostate Cancer Center of Excellence
Associate Professor
Prostate Cancer Center of Excellence Faculty

Kirsten Beyer, PhD, MPH, MS
Associate Professor, Division of Epidemiology; Director, PhD Program in Public & Community Health; Co-Director, Global Health Pathway; Co-Director, GEO Shared Resource; Adjunct Associate Professor, Geography, UW-Milwaukee

John Burfeind, MD
Staff Physician

Kathryn A. Bylow, MD
Associate Professor

Weiguo Cui, PhD
Associate Investigator, Versiti Blood Research Institute; Associate Professor, Microbiology & Immunology

Adam Currey, MD
Associate Professor

Jennifer Doll, PhD
Associate Professor, UW-Milwaukee

Kenneth A. Iczkowski, MD
Professor

Kenneth Jacobsohn, MD
Professor

Scott C. Johnson, MD
Assistant Professor

Dev Karan, PhD
Associate Professor

Deepak Kilari, MD
Associate Professor

Peter S. LaViolette, PhD, MS
Associate Professor; Director, Quantitative Imaging Laboratory, Medical College of Wisconsin; Section of Imaging Research, Division of Imaging Sciences

Colleen A. Lawton, MD, FACR, FASTRO
Vice Chair, Professor

Subramaniam Malarkannan, PhD
Professor and Gardetto Chair for Immunology and Immunotherapy; Professor, Medicine (Hematology and Oncology) and Microbiology & Immunology; Senior Investigator, Versiti Blood Research Institute

Jong-In Park, PhD
Professor

Melinda Stolley, PhD
Professor; Associate Director Prevention & Control, Cancer Center

Demin Wang, PhD
Senior Investigator, Versiti Blood Research Institute; Assistant Professor

Liang Wang, MD, PhD
Professor, Moffitt Cancer Center
Center Leadership
The Prostate Cancer Center of Excellence is directed by nationally renowned and respected prostate cancer researchers and clinicians who work together to provide excellent clinical care, conduct multidisciplinary research and train the next generation of prostate cancer researchers.
Marja Nevalainen, MD, PhD, Center Director
William Hall, MD, Clinical Co-Director
Dev Karan, PhD, Leader of Prostate Cancer Center of Excellence Trainee Series
External Advisory Board
Other Member and Trainee Accomplishments
Kenneth Iczkowski, MD, Professor of Pathology and Urology, has been elected president-elect of the International Society of Urological Pathology for a two-year term. The International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) is an international program that issues guidelines for the practice of uropathology and offers educational opportunities for pathologists worldwide. The ISUP has more than 1,400 members from 81 countries in 6 continents. The ISUP is sponsoring the 2019 Prostate Cancer Grading Conference in France, for which Dr. Iczkowski is co-chairing. This year's conference will likely address and resolve several outstanding issues related to prostate cancer grading and ongoing changes in the diagnostic pathway of prostate cancer.
John Bukowy, postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Peter LaViolette’s lab, gave a presentation in early April on “Accurate Segmentation of Prostate Cancer Histomorphometric Features Using a Weakly Supervised Convolutional Neural Network,” at the 2019 Experimental Biology Conference in Orlando, Florida.
Marja Nevalainen, MD, PhD, Professor of Pathology, served as an ad-hoc member for the American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grants Committee in June in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Nevalainen is also served as an ad-hoc reviewer for the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) Idea Development Award Pre-application this past June-July 2019.
Back in February, Dr. Nevalainen served as a member of the Second Tier Reviewer Panel for the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Programmatic Review. She also served as session chair at the March 2019 European Association of Urology Conference in Barcelona, Spain.
John Bukowy, postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Peter LaViolette’s lab, gave a presentation in early April on “Accurate Segmentation of Prostate Cancer Histomorphometric Features Using a Weakly Supervised Convolutional Neural Network,” at the 2019 Experimental Biology Conference in Orlando, Florida.
Marja Nevalainen, MD, PhD, Professor of Pathology, served as an ad-hoc member for the American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grants Committee in June in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Nevalainen is also served as an ad-hoc reviewer for the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) Idea Development Award Pre-application this past June-July 2019.
Back in February, Dr. Nevalainen served as a member of the Second Tier Reviewer Panel for the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Programmatic Review. She also served as session chair at the March 2019 European Association of Urology Conference in Barcelona, Spain.
Center Impact: Prostate Cancer Screening for Underserved Men in MKE
We held our 3rd annual Prostate Health Education and Screening Event at Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church on Saturday, November 2. Over 60 men received free PSA screenings, plus education, discussion, a survivors' panel and more! The video on the right shows event highlights over the years.
Wisconsin has extremely high rates of prostate cancer incidence, late-stage incidence and death, particularly in our African American communities and rural populations.
African American men in Wisconsin are almost twice as likely to develop prostate cancer and die from their disease.
These disparities cry out for immediate action. The MCW Cancer Center and PC-COE along with faith-based partners, has committed to providing free early screening and prostate health education for underserved men in Milwaukee. Our annual Prostate Health Education Symposium
provides education and discussion from prostate cancer doctors and researchers and free on-site PSA testing, with the results sent directly to the men.
Research Highlights
Available clinical trials, select publications and peer reviewed research grants from members of the Prostate Cancer Center of Excellence.
Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials
Research Publications
Prostate Cancer Research Grants
Center Researchers
The PC-COE provides the collaborative and supportive framework for a cross-disciplinary team of talented and innovative researchers and physician scientists who work together for the benefit of patients, families and our community. This team includes an up-and-coming physicist and imaging researcher who uses 3-D printing technology to model individual prostate cancers from patients for clinicians to improve diagnosis and surgical treatment of prostate cancer.
- A researcher who has improved a specific type of a non-invasive liquid biopsy to help gauge treatment efficacy, giving physicians greater agility and precision in treating aggressive prostate cancers.
-A researcher who has identified and validated a novel therapeutic target for a clinical trial starting to treat patients with advanced prostate cancer.
- A cancer health geographer who designed a special adaptive mapping system to pinpoint areas where prostate cancer disparities are worse than expected and help other researchers target areas for interventions and investments.
- An expert in designing effective clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of new therapies for prostate cancer.
- A clinical researcher who adapts MR-Linac technology for more effective radiation treatment of prostate cancer.
- A researcher investigating how dietary and physical activity changes affect body composition, biomarkers of general health and prostate cancer recurrence risk, and quality of life among prostate cancer survivors.
Kirsten Beyer, PhD
Weiguo Cui, MD, PhD
Jennifer Doll, PhD
William Hall, MD
Kenneth Iczkowski, MD
Kenneth Jacobsohn, MD
Dev Karan, PhD
Depak Kilari, MD
Colleen Lawton, MD
Marja Nevalainen, MD, PhD
John Park, PhD
Sarah Patch, PhD
William See, MD
Melinda Stolley, PhD
Demin Wang, PhD
Clinical Cancer Researchers and Clinicians
These Prostate Cancer Center of Excellence physicians, who are faculty at the Medical College of Wisconsin and practice at the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Clinical Cancer Center, are some of the most innovative, compassionate, and successful prostate cancer clinicians in our region and around the country. Patients in the greater Milwaukee area, and throughout Wisconsin and the upper Midwest have the best prostate cancer care right here in their own backyards.
Physicians in the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Division of Urologic Oncology
Physicians in the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Division of Radiation Oncology
Physicians in the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Division of Medical Oncology
Physicians in the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Department of Pathology
Patient and Family Resources
Are you looking for a doctor? Seeking a second opinion? Would you like to learn more about prostate cancer and available resources? Click the green + symbol to open each section.
Learn More About Prostate Cancer
Patient Care and Support at the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center
Community Resources for Prostate Cancer Patients, Survivors and Family Members