Seeking the cells spreading prostate cancer to the bones
What you need to know
- Every prostate cancer is unique and understanding the genetic changes within them could make more effective treatments possible for men with advanced prostate cancer.
- Radiotherapy is a common and effective treatment option for men with advanced prostate cancer, but some men are resistant to the treatment.
- Dr Victoria Dunne proposes using a more targeted approach to radiotherapy which could lead to improved survival for men whose prostate cancer has spread to their bones.
Men with prostate cancer which has spread to the bones have a shortened life expectancy and poor quality of life. There is an urgent need for new therapies to help these men, and that’s what I plan to explore with my research.
A ‘one size fits all’ approach to treating advanced prostate cancer may not be delivering men with the best possible results. Dr Victoria Dunne seeks to give men whose prostate cancer has spread to the bones better outcomes by using a treatment specifically designed for them.
A common genetic change
Each man’s prostate cancer is as unique as he is, and genetic changes are one of the things that makes each prostate cancer so unique. In about 25 per cent of men with prostate cancer which has spread outside the prostate there is a common genetic change. This change is in the genes which control how DNA is repaired. Unfortunately for these men it means their cancer is harder to treat with radiotherapy- a common treatment for advanced prostate cancer.
Dr Victoria Dunne from Queen’s University Belfast is leading a project which will use a new method of delivering radiotherapy and aims to extend the lives of men with advanced prostate cancer.
Precision medicine for best results
Currently, most treatments for men with advanced prostate cancer are given to all men regardless of the specific changes present in the genetic material of their tumours. In this project, Dr Dunne wants to use a more targeted approach. Her work will use a new treatment combination specifically for men with a change in their DNA repair genes. The men would receive drugs which stop cancer cells being able to repair themselves, in combination with a new method of radiotherapy.
Radium seeking out cancer cells
Traditional radiotherapy is a common and often successful treatment for men with prostate cancer. However, it can be damaging to all the cells it hits in its path to the prostate cancer, and some men are resistant to treatment like this. In this project Dr Dunne combines the effectiveness of traditional radiotherapy with the targeted approach of precision medicine.
Dr Dunne’s treatment will see radium injected into the blood. Once in the bloodstream the radium specifically seeks out the tumour cells causing bone disease that can occur when prostate cancer has spread throughout the body. When the radium treatment is given alongside drugs that inhibit the DNA repair process, Dr Dunne expects to see improved survival for patients with late stage prostate cancer.
Grant Information
Reference – TLD-PF21-001
Researcher – Dr Victoria Dunne
Institution – Queen’s University Belfast
Award - £284,426
Career Acceleration Fellowships now OPEN
Offering up to £300K over 3-4 years for outstanding early career prostate cancer researchers to pursue their own independent research goals and accelerate their career trajectories!