Latest round of Research Innovation Awards brings our total investment to £50 million

After news broke last year that deaths from prostate cancer have overtaken those from breast cancer, it’s now more important than ever to fund vital research to stop the disease in its tracks. That’s why we’re delighted to announce we have awarded over £3 million to eight teams of ambitious UK scientists, pushing our total investment in research to a staggering £50 million since 1993.

The new projects are part of our Research Innovation Awards – a scheme dedicated to funding the most impactful and imaginative research the field has to offer. They focus on new ideas that tackle taming prostate cancer from a completely new angle. And this year’s projects are no exception, with aims of:

• Stopping prostate cancer hiding from hormone therapy
• Focusing on targeted treatments to reduce side effects
• Derailing hormone therapy resistance
• Activating the immune system to clear up cancer
• Stopping prostate cancer growth in its tracks
• Testing precision medicine in mini prostate cancer tumours
• Using a cancer-killing virus to treat advanced prostate cancer
• Reinventing the PSA test to improve diagnosis

A focus on better treatments 

Seven of the eight projects are honing in on finding better treatments for prostate cancer, such as slowing and preventing hormone therapy resistance and trialling more targeted, precision medicine. They will lay crucial groundwork so more men can survive prostate cancer, with fewer life-changing side effects.

"We’re delighted to be funding another eight promising projects as part of our Research Innovation Awards, thanks to the generous donations from our supporters," says Dr Matthew Hobbs, our Director of Research.

"Each year, our expert committee recommends which projects we should fund to make the biggest impact for men. This time it’s research into improving treatments that showed the best chance of making the biggest impact for men, and helping us deliver our strategy to tame prostate cancer." 

Building on promising foundations

But although all the projects are breaking new ground, several are building on foundations laid from other projects within our £50 million research portfolio.  

Dr Gunnel Halldén, one of our new awardees, is adding to her work on a cancer-killing virus. In a previous project funded by us, she developed the virus that's capable of specifically infecting and killing prostate cancer cells.

Now, she’s taking it a step further and developing a unique ‘protein package’ to deliver the virus wherever it’s needed in the body. The package also adds another layer to her treatment: the potential to provide men with long-term protection from prostate cancer, that lasts way beyond initial treatment. 

In his Research Innovation Award, Professor Johan de Bono (pictured above) is building on almost a decade of work, spanning three previous Prostate Cancer UK-funded projects. They’ve helped him uncover proteins that help prostate cancer resist hormone therapy, and force men onto chemotherapy.

Now he’s putting these discoveries into action, finding chemicals that cut off the supply of resistance-promoting proteins. These chemicals could help men control their cancer for longer with hormone therapy, or even re-sensitise those that have already become resistant to the important drug.

Playing the long game 

This latest crop of Research Innovation Awards shows how important it is to play the long game in research. We started growing our investments in people like Dr Halldén and Professor de Bono years ago, and now thanks to new funding, they’re at the brink of paying off. In the meantime, plenty more projects are set to follow in their tracks.

But none of this investment would be possible without the generous donations from supporters like you. You’ve already helped us feed £50 million into prostate cancer research, which is having a big impact for the men and their families affected by prostate cancer. But to find a cure we need more.

Donate today to continue to support the vital research that is saving men’s lives.