The Pioneers Update – Summer 2022
Introducing Laura Kerby, our Chief Executive
Our new CEO, Laura Kerby, reflects on her first six months at the helm and the recent breakthroughs that you’ve made possible, including record-breaking prostate cancer referrals.
It’s such an honour for me to lead Prostate Cancer UK towards an ambitious future. My father is one of the 400,000 men in the UK living with prostate cancer and I am determined to ensure future lives are neither shortened nor limited by the disease.
My passion for health and wellbeing has driven my career: I’ve worked across the healthcare landscape in prevention, diagnostic, treatment and living well with disease. I joined Prostate Cancer UK from Myeloma UK, where I was Chief Executive since April 2020. I previously also led the charity Penny Brohn UK for six years and before that, I sat on the Executive Board of Nuffield.
“I passionately believe that working together, uniting the best science and clinical practice, we will beat this disease. And the engine driving our progress is the determination and energy of those standing with men affected by prostate cancer. That’s you and me.”
Laura Kerby, Chief Executive
After six months as Chief Executive at Prostate Cancer UK, I’m thrilled to introduce some of the recent breakthroughs that are helping us create a world where lives aren’t limited by prostate cancer.
Our campaign to find the 14,000 men living with undiagnosed prostate cancer because of the pandemic got off to an incredible start. Our vital message – encouraging men to check their risk of prostate cancer – reached millions through prime time TV, radio, bus stops, billboards and top publications across the UK. Over half a million people checked their risk in the first six weeks thanks in part to our supporters sharing the risk checker. A monumental effort, which has already driven thousands of men for further, lifesaving tests. More on that below.
The success of our risk checker campaign also drives home the importance of every man getting an early and accurate diagnosis. As we'll explain, we’re stepping up to the challenge. With you by our side, we’re making our biggest ever research investment to help find a better test that could help us deliver a screening programme.
Thank you so much for everything you do as our Pioneers to help find better tests and life-saving treatments for men affected by prostate cancer.
Laura Kerby
Chief Executive
Prostate cancer referrals hit an all-time high, thanks to your efforts to find the 14,000 men
In February, we joined forces with NHS England to launch our biggest ever campaign to help find 14,000 men who have not started treatment for prostate cancer since the beginning of the pandemic. We asked our supporters to help us, and you answered our call.
In May, we hit national headlines as urgent referrals for urological cancers reached an all-time high, with 24,331 men checked in just one month. Thanks to our nationwide campaign with the NHS and our supporter’s efforts sharing our 30-second risk-checker, more men than ever are having these vital conversations with their GPs.
NHS Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard praised our campaign, saying “Lives are being saved thanks to a record-breaking number of men taking the vital decision to get an NHS cancer check.”
The latest NHS figures show the campaign had an immediate impact. Urological cancer referrals in March increased by more than a fifth (23%) compared to the previous month and are up by almost one third (30%) compared with the same month last year.
Symptoms of prostate cancer often do not show up during the early stages but men who have higher risk are encouraged to come forward for checks. More than half a million people checked their risk during the first six weeks of the campaign, over 80% of which were at higher risk because of their age, ethnicity, or family history. Our risk-checker gave these men the tools and encouragement to speak to their GP.
“We're delighted that record numbers of men have already spoken to their GP, because it's so important that these men are found and referred. But we can’t stop here. We need to keep up the momentum, which is why we’re asking everyone to keep sharing our risk checker so even more men can find out about their risk and what to do about it.”
Chiara De Biase, Director of Support & Influencing
Life-saving campaigns like this are only possible thanks to the hard work of our supporters. Together, we will find the 14,000 men.
Treating smarter, not harder: thousands of men could be spared side effects of docetaxel chemotherapy
New research helps identify which men will live longer with chemotherapy.
Presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, the study looked at the benefits of combining docetaxel chemotherapy and standard hormone therapy in men with advanced prostate cancer. To investigate this thoroughly, the study analysed data from the STAMPEDE trial, which your support helped fund, as well as from two other trials.
The research could lead to changes in clinical practice as chemotherapy was found to be very effective for some men, while others saw no benefit at all. The life-changing findings could help extend lives and reduce side effects by getting the right treatments, to the right men at the right time.
What does this mean for men?
In the UK, docetaxel is the most commonly used chemotherapy for men with advanced prostate cancer. It can help men to live longer, but it can also cause side effects including tiredness, nausea, hair loss and loss of appetite.
Findings show that docetaxel was more effective in men who had many metastases when they were diagnosed. After five years, more than a third (38%) of men who received docetaxel were alive compared with a quarter (26%) who only had hormone therapy. Men with larger tumours saw even greater benefits, with more than half (58%) surviving for five years compared to only a fifth (19%) of men who had not received docetaxel – an increase of almost 40%.
But men with fewer tumours or who had been diagnosed at an earlier stage did not benefit from docetaxel at all. With chemotherapy, they did not live longer than men who were only given hormone therapy. These men could instead benefit from other life-extending treatments and avoid the unnecessary side effects of chemotherapy.
These results pave the way for more personalised treatments and could allow chemotherapy to be targeted at the right men who will benefit the most.
“It’s extremely rare to find such clear links between the characteristics of the patient and how effective their treatment is going to be. In this case, the evidence is clear, and we want to make sure it’s incorporated into clinical practice as soon as possible.”
Dr Claire Vale, Principal Research Fellow at MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL who presented the data at ASCO
This study was funded through our Research Innovation Award scheme. Thanks to the generous donations of our supporters, including the Pioneers, this research could help extend the lives of thousands of men with advanced prostate cancer.
Making a screening programme a reality
Routine testing already exists for people at risk of common cancers like bowel and breast cancer. Yet the most common cancer in men, prostate cancer doesn’t have a screening programme.
Inviting all men at risk of prostate cancer to a screening programme could be a game-changer, and would save lives. Especially because prostate cancer often has no symptoms in the early stages. But decisions around screening programmes are complicated. They’re a balancing act between how many people would be helped, and how many people would be harmed.
Understanding the limitations of the PSA test
The PSA test measures the amount of a protein, called Prostate Specific Antigen, released by prostate cells into the blood. Clinical trials have shown us that using the PSA test to identify prostate cancer can save lives.
But the PSA test has its flaws. Not all prostates release the same amount of PSA, so a normal score for one man could prevent us finding cancer in another. Research has shown that as many as 1 in 7 men with prostate cancer may have a PSA that is deemed ‘normal’, so a PSA test would miss their cancers entirely. It also can’t differentiate between low-risk cancer that may never cause any harm, and aggressive disease that requires treatment.
The next step: find a better test
We want to bring men a screening programme for prostate cancer and save more lives while doing less harm. To do that, we need new tests. New tests need solid evidence, and that means research. That’s why we’ve committed to making our biggest ever research investment to fund the research that will develop and provide the evidence for new and better tests.
We’re asking researchers to apply for funding to transform prostate cancer diagnosis. They’ll have to answer three crucial questions as part of their application: the type of test or combination of tests that we should use, how we’ll select the men who will most likely benefit from screening, and how we can use the data collected in this study (i.e blood, saliva and urine samples) to help other research projects.
These proposals will go through a rigorous selection process by independent experts - including other researchers, clinicians and men with prostate cancer - to make sure we fund only the most promising research. Working in collaboration with the NHS, the UK National Screening Committee and the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI), as well as leading research institutes and universities, we’ll ensure that we’re funding the best possible research that can improve the diagnosis pathway for men.
Diagnosis for prostate cancer needs radical change. And radical change needs radical investment. We are the only organisation with the focus and expertise to push this research programme into existence. And this research is only possible thanks to people like our Pioneers who fund and support our work. Thank you.
The call for "Research to transform prostate cancer diagnosis" is now open with an initial budget of £5 million. You can enquire about becoming part of this research programme by speaking with the Philanthropy team who can be contacted by email.
“We have the opportunity to reduce the number of men who are diagnosed too late”
Every year 9,500 men in the UK are told that their cancer has already spread at the point they are diagnosed, and they’ve missed the chance of treatment to cure it. During our annual Panel event, we invited four researchers to discuss the latest advances in technology and pioneering methods that could give men the early diagnosis they deserve.
Here are the key takeaways from each of our speakers and the exciting research projects that could change the way men are diagnosed.
Professor Ros Eeles: looking for clues in men’s DNA
Ros Eeles is Professor of Oncogenetics at the Institute of Cancer Research and clinician at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. Until recently we didn’t have the tools to implement a more accurate test for prostate cancer. But Dr Eeles believes that genetic testing might be the answer.
Her research looks at how we could use our DNA to improve the diagnostic pathway. By testing for known markers, this test could help not only diagnose men but also identify men at higher risk.
“It is possible that we will have a saliva test in the near future that could be implemented in GP surgeries not just for prostate cancer, but for the whole genome.”
Professor Ros Eeles
Dr Jeremy Clark: working with urine-based biomarkers
Dr Jeremy Clark, Senior Research Associate at the University of East Anglia, focuses on urine-based biomarkers. A major challenge up until now has been identifying signals that there’s something wrong in and around the prostate, particularly without using invasive procedures.
Dr Clark’s research looks at biomarkers for prostate cancer that are secreted into the urine from the cancer. By sparing men the need for a biopsy, a urine test has the potential to offer a simple, non-invasive way of diagnosing prostate cancer, potentially from the comfort of a man’s home.
Dr Jennifer Munkley: the power of sugar in detecting prostate cancer
Dr Jennifer Munkley, Research Fellow at Newcastle University, is an expert in blood-based biomarkers. Her Prostate Cancer UK grant led to the discovery of a blood test known as Glycosore which detects changes to sugars in patient blood.
Glycosore is a simple blood test and could be more accurate than the current PSA test at identifying men with prostate cancer.
“We had our Eureka moment in the lab. As a researcher, it has always been important to me that my research can improve the lives of men with prostate cancer.”
Dr Jennifer Munkley
Since her discovery, Dr Munkley has secured government and private investment to file a patent and start a spinout company so that the test can be made available to men. But first, she needs to carry out a large-scale trial to prove that it is effective.
Professor Hashim Ahmed: the success of prostate cancer imaging
Professor Hashim Ahmed, Chair of Urology at Imperial College London, is an award-winning clinician and researcher that has already had success in the use of multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) to help diagnose men. But mpMRI isn’t the only imaging tool that could be used to improve how we diagnose men.
Some of the tools Professor Ahmed suggested include the use of ultrasound to spot prostate cancer in men who are not suitable for mpMRI (for example men with pacemakers or metal implants). PSMA-PET, a new type of imaging scan which is being developed could also be used to check whether a man’s cancer has spread. In the near future, we could even see the use of Artificial Intelligence to help radiologists detect cancer earlier.
As Dr Matt Hobbs, our Director of Research, summarised on the night, “We have the opportunity to reduce the number of men diagnosed too late. But to do it we need to change clinical practice. To change clinical practice we need new evidence. New evidence can only come from new research. We know what that research is, and we will fund it. But we need your support.”
The Panel 2022 was held at the prestigious Royal College of Physicians and generously sponsored by our long standing supporters, Trailfinders. Research like this will help open new avenues to improve diagnosis for men across the UK and is made possible thanks to the support of our Pioneers.
For more information on any of these research projects, you can contact the Philanthropy team.
