We challenged the prostate cancer research community to really raise their game. We wanted to see something we’d never seen before, and to see projects that clearly brought a new approach to the problem. We weren’t disappointed. Over a day of intense discussion and debate, the awards below were ranked most highly and recommended for funding by our expert Research Advisory Committee.
The researchers have already designed and validated key components of a vaccine to treat and prevent prostate cancer. In this project, they will put all the parts together and test them to make the vaccine as effective as possible.
Dr Wang’s team will use mouse models to investigate whether exercise inhibits prostate cancer cells’ ability to move into, and grow in, bones.
Dr Tree will conduct a clinical trial of men whose cancer has begun to grow after treatment with abiraterone or enzalutamide. She wants to see whether hitting the growing metastatic lesions with precisely targeted radiotherapy can prolong the time that the rest of the cancer responds to hormone therapy.
Dr Munkley will investigate why the loss of sugar groups on the outside of the cell leads to prostate cancer cell death, and whether she can use existing anti-glycosylation drugs to exploit this as a potential new treatment for aggressive prostate cancer.
Dr Tierney and her colleagues will review data from clinical trials worldwide in new and different ways. This will help them to work out which are the best current treatments for advanced prostate cancer as quickly as possible, and identify clinical measurements that predict treatment success to try to speed up future trials.
This team of PhD and clinical scientists aims to postpone surgery by reprogramming immune cells in the prostate to prevent cancers growing back after primary treatment.