Meet our featured researcher
Personalising radiotherapy to the seminal vesicles
For men with early-stage prostate cancer, radiotherapy is usually highly effective and is typically monitored by imaging to check that the treatment has been successful.
However, in some men, microscopic amounts of their prostate cancer can spread to the seminal vesicles at the top of their prostate. This may not be visible on imaging scans and can be missed by radiotherapy targeting the prostate, increasing the risk of recurrence.
To ensure more men don't see their cancer return, research is needed to improve and personalise the way men are treated with radiotherapy.
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.
Dr Shortall, a Prostate Cancer UK Career Acceleration Fellow from the University of Manchester, will expand the range of factors used to plan, deliver and follow up on radiotherapy, including the man’s genetics, to make the treatment more accurate and effective.
As part of her fellowship, Dr Shortall will analyse data on thousands of men treated with radiotherapy for prostate cancer, including blood samples and MRI scans taken before, during and after treatment.
For men before their treatment, she will compare blood tests and MRI scans to work out which men's cancer may have spread to their seminal vesicles, and cannot be seen on a scan.
When she has identified those men, she will look at how their blood tests and scans change during treatment
to determine men's response to radiotherapy and, if necessary, how to adapt the treatment to target all the cancer.
Finally, Dr Shortall will scrutinise the men’s follow-up tests and scans, searching for early biomarkers of recurrence, to identify men who would benefit from further treatment.
This is why we fund the latest and most impactful research into the disease, so that every man navigating prostate cancer has a chance of living as long, and as well, as possible.
This unique approach – studying past and present treatment pathways simultaneously – will allow her to apply what what she learns from historic data almost immediately, testing any potential changes to radiotherapy with the men as they undergo their treatment.
This approach will also give me the opportunity to test some cutting-edge scans that have never been used in this way before. Working with Professor Tyler Seibert, an expert at the University of California, San Diego, she'll introduce two new scans into the radiotherapy process: restriction spectrum imaging, which maps the layout of cells in the body by studying the movement of water molecules, and oxygen-enhanced MRI, which looks for cells that are hypoxic.
This research will be a vital step towards personalising prostate radiotherapy. It will show how we can make smarter use of data and technology to better inform treatment decisions before, during, and after radiotherapy.
And the results?
We shared Dr Shortall's work with our supporters alongside the story of a man who has been diagnosed with locally advanced prostate cancer that had spread to his seminal vesicles, and so would benefit from the reassurance resulting from Jane's work.
This appeal inspired supporters to donate an incredible total of £163,067 to support our work.
Thank you!
A huge thank you to Dr Jane Shortall and her team for their cooperation and support throughout the process.
