Help stop prostate cancer making a comeback
For a man with early-stage prostate cancer, radiotherapy is a common treatment. It uses waves like x-rays to destroy the cancer cells in or around the prostate.
However, for some men who have undergone radiotherapy, microscopic amounts of their prostate cancer may have spread to the seminal vesicles, or small glands, at the top of a man’s prostate. This can make it more likely that their cancer will come back.
Your support today can help improve and personalise the way men are treated with radiotherapy. Will you help give men the reassurance that their cancer will not return?
Reduce the risk of prostate cancer returning
Dr Jane Shortall, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Manchester, is conducting promising research into radiotherapy, funded through our Career Acceleration Fellowships programme.
In her project, Dr Shortall will analyse data from thousands of men who have had radiotherapy for prostate cancer to find a way to predict whose cancer did return and whose cancer didn't.
Armed with this knowledge, Dr Shortall will work out how to adjust treatments for men at increased risk of their cancer spreading, so that their cancer is eliminated, and how to spot the early signs of cancer returning in follow-up scans.
Dr Shortall explains: “Not only could this research save men’s lives, but it could spare other men the side effects of unnecessary radiotherapy and reduce the fear and anxiety around the cancer coming back.”
You can read more about her research here.
Will you help fund cutting-edge projects like Dr Shortall’s to stop prostate cancer coming back after treatment?
Help men live as long, and as well, as possible
Lorna Moore’s dad, Robert, was diagnosed with locally advanced prostate cancer that had spread to his seminal vesicles in 2011, aged 57. After undergoing radiotherapy and hormone therapy, he went into remission with a plan to continue monitoring his PSA levels. But in 2023, Robert and his family had to hear the news that nobody wants – that his cancer had now returned. For Robert and Lorna, this brought a new wave of fear and anxiety.
Lorna says: “The second time my dad was diagnosed, the anxiety was a lot higher – he had had enough of treatments, day in, day out. You feel like you’re a ticking time bomb.”
Robert is now receiving monthly hormone therapy, and Lorna is on hand to support him as much as she can. But men like Robert deserve a future without the additional anxiety of not knowing if their cancer will come back or not.
For men like Robert, and for their families, research like Dr Shortall’s could improve treatment decisions and lower the chance of cancer returning.
