Research we fund

Mapping the immune cells in prostate cancer

What you need to know

  • Drugs that harness the immune system have had great success in treating other forms of cancer yet only work in rare cases of prostate cancer.
  • Professor Clayton believes that the way that prostate cancer changes its surrounding environment may affect the immune system.
  • If he and his team can identify specific changes in prostate cancer samples then it could lead to blood tests to predict and monitor treatment response.
Bringing much needed new understanding, this project will ultimately help us design approaches to treat prostate cancer by making immunotherapy a more effective and predictable treatment.
Professor Aled Clayton

Professor Clayton and his colleagues will study prostate cancer samples in a whole new level of detail. Using state-of-the-art technology, they will precisely map out the immune cells present in the tumour, as well as identifying the molecules that are released by the cancer cells.

Unlocking the potential of immunotherapy

Immunotherapy treatments have led to great improvements in treatments for several cancers, such as melanoma. These drugs activate the immune system to fight the cancer, curing diseases that were previously untreatable. However, immunotherapy has only worked in a small number of men with prostate cancer and it is not clear what exactly is different about these cases.

There is still a lot that we do not know about the nature of the immune cells in prostate cancer tissue. Understanding this better will help to select the best type of immunotherapy for prostate cancer.

Creating an in-depth map

Professor Clayton and his colleagues will study samples of prostate cancer from a tissue bank. Using a new technology called spatial profiling, they will be able to see how the cancerous tissue is structured with different cells. They will be able to compare samples from different stages of cancer to see what changes happen as the disease progresses.

Working towards blood tests

Previous work from Professor Clayton has shown that the tumours release small packages of molecules into the bloodstream, which can stop immune cells from working. As part of this project, the team aim to develop new methods to identify these packages in the blood. They hope that this could lead to a blood test in future to check the cancer’s likely response to immunotherapy. This could help doctors to decide on whether immunotherapy is appropriate and when to switch to other treatments.

Grant Information

Reference – MA-IMM19-010

Researcher – Professor Aled Clayton

Institution – University of Cardiff

Amount - £231,307