Studying prostate cancer's 'fingerprint' to target treatments

Grant information

Reference - MA-PM16-002
Researcher - Professor Johann de Bono
Institution - Institute of Cancer Research
Duration - 2018-2023
Award - £1,300,957.00

Why did we fund this project?

• Every prostate cancer is different, each having unique ‘fingerprint’ that can affect how aggressive the cancer is, how likely it is to spread, and which treatments will work best.
• In the first part of this project, the team aimed to study the fingerprints of advanced prostate cancers from hundreds of men across the UK.
• They wanted to identify how different features that make up the fingerprint affect how a man’s cancer grows, spreads and responds to treatments.
• Then, in the second part of this project, the team applied these findings to try and predict which men would benefit from a treatment called immunotherapy.
• Immunotherapy only works well for a small number of men with advanced prostate cancer, and currently we can't tell whether this treatment will work for each man or not.
• The team aimed to demonstrate that by studying the fingerprint of each man’s cancer, they could target immunotherapy to the right men.

What did the team do?

• The team studied the unique fingerprints of advanced prostate cancers in hundreds of men from across the UK, using tissue collected from their routine biopsies.
• The team then used this information to select men whose cancer fingerprint had a particular feature that suggested they were more likely to benefit from immunotherapy.
• These men were enrolled in a clinical trial, to test whether immunotherapy could be an effective targeted treatment for cancers with this feature.

What did the team achieve?

• The team uncovered links between the fingerprint of a man’s cancer, and how the cancer grows, spreads and responds to treatments.
• In the clinical trial, the team demonstrated that immunotherapy worked well for 28% of the men with the feature in the fingerprint of their cancer. This is a much higher percentage than in previous trials that tested this treatment in all men.
• However, immunotherapy didn’t work well for the rest of the men in the trial, who still experienced this treatment's difficult side effects. This shows there are more important features of the cancer fingerprint to be uncovered before immunotherapy can be perfectly targeted to the right men.
• The team also characterised a second feature of the cancer fingerprint that could be a target for new treatments for advanced prostate cancer. They are now developing and testing new drugs that target this feature.

What does this mean for men?

• The team have uncovered information about how the unique fingerprint of each man’s cancer can affect how it grows, spreads and responds to treatments such as immunotherapy.
• Currently, doctors often can't tell which treatment will work best for a particular man.
• Research like this is the first step towards allowing doctors to select the best treatment for each man, based on the unique fingerprint of their cancer. This will ultimately help men live better for longer.