Precision medicine for advanced prostate cancer

Grant information

Institution - University College London
Researcher - Professor Gerhardt Attard
Grant Award - £1,440,402.00
Duration of Funding - 2018-2024
Status - Complete
Reference - MA-PM16-001

Why did we fund this project?

• Every man’s prostate cancer is different, some cancers are more aggressive than others or respond better to different types of treatment.

• In some types of cancer, doctors can look for specific clues in a person’s cancer cells to help determine which treatments are most likely to be effective. But this kind of personalised care isn’t yet available for prostate cancer.

• This project set out to change that by identifying clues present within each man's prostate cancer, enabling every man to get the treatment that works best for him.

What did the researchers do?

• The team analysed samples from men who took part in STAMPEDE, a large nationwide trial designed to identify the most effective treatments for men with advanced prostate cancer.

• They examined which characteristics of a man's prostate cancer could help guide treatment decisions, and assessed different approaches to measure them.

What did the researchers achieve?

• The team identified several promising tools that can help determine which men need more intensive treatment and who is likely to respond to specific therapies.

• They showed that the AI tool Artera can predict who will benefit from additional treatment, and who can safely avoid it.

• They also demonstrated that a tool called Decipher can pinpoint which men are most likely to benefit from docetaxel chemotherapy.

How will this benefit men?

• These tools were evaluated using information from men who had already been treated, where the researchers knew how effective their treatment had been.

• Before these tools can be used to guide treatment for men today, they need to be checked in clinical trials to confirm they work safely and reliably in real life.

• That’s why we’ve funded two new trials to test how well Decipher and Artera support treatment decisions, moving them closer to becoming part of routine care.