Research we fund
Our Research Strategy
Our ambitious Research Strategy: how we'll invest in the most innovative research to create a step change in our knowledge of prostate cancer.
Why do we fund what we fund?
Validation of new drugs to slow growth of cancer cells
Our first Travelling Prize Fellow will be working with a team in Rotterdam to develop the skills to develop drugs for treating prostate cancer.
Testing a new drug for the PTEN-men
Professor Waugh is investigating a new drug, which could be used to treat men with the common PTEN mutation in their prostate cancer, and whose prostate cancers often relapse after treatment.
Developing a genetic test for aggressive prostate cancer
We are funding Professor de Bono and his team to develop a simple genetic test to work out which men have this mutation. This will help them to give a more accurate prognosis to men with this mutation and to recruit them for a bigger clinical trial of olaparib.
Precision medicine for advanced prostate cancer
Professor Attard wants to find ways of predicting which treatments will work best for men with advanced prostate cancer, so that every man gets the best treatment, at the right time, when it has the chance of greatest effectiveness.
Using computers to predict treatment response
Dr Crispin Miller will train a PhD student to develop computer models to predict how men with advanced prostate cancer will respond to treatment. Ultimately this work will help us to get better at matching the treatment given to an individual man’s cancer.
Using precision medicine in combination with hormone therapy for advanced prostate cancer
Professor Attard wants to find ways of predicting which treatments will work best for men with advanced prostate cancer, so that every man gets the best treatment, at the right time, when it has the chance of greatest effectiveness.
Making sense of big data on small molecules
Dr Hector Keun and his PhD student will unlock the power of microRNAs to distinguish aggressive cancers from low-risk ones and to tell us which is likely to be the best treatment for an individual man’s cancer.
Building a database of prostate cancer genetic information
Professor Johann de Bono and his PhD student will gather and analyse the masses of genetic data available from prostate cancer patients’ biopsy and blood samples to work out which treatments, and which clinical trials, might work best for them.
Understanding why multiple prostate cancers appear together
We’ve granted £83,979 to Dr Daniel Brewer at the University of East Anglia to train a PhD student to analyse data that might allow us to make sense of the mysterious prostate cancer field effect. This could have major implications for which treatments men should choose and also, one day, for preventing the disease.
Androgen receptor variants: A novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer.
Dr Sharp aims to identify proteins that bind to altered versions of the androgen receptor, and investigate whether blocking their activity can hinder cancer progression.
Developing a non-invasive assay for the detection of prostate cancer
Dr Feber and his team aim to improve the way that prostate cancer is diagnosed and monitored. They’ve developed a test that looks at prostate cancer specific DNA modifications that can be detected in the blood of men with prostate cancer.
Treatment of prostate cancer patients with changes to their DNA repair genes
By assessing how tumour cells repair their DNA, Dr Mateo aims to develop a tool that can identify those patients with a poor prognosis who may benefit from a new treatment.
Using a blood-based test to personalise treatment for advanced prostate cancer
Funded research by Dr Gerhardt Attard of the Institute of Cancer Research into a simple blood test that will determine the treatment that’s most likely to work for men with advanced hormone-resistant prostate cancer.
A prostate cancer risk prediction tool for primary care practice
Funded research by Dr Chris Parker of the Institute of Cancer Research which looks to develop a risk assessment tool to give a better indication of a man’s risk of having aggressive prostate cancer.
Targeting hardy cancer cells that survive radiotherapy
Dr Clarkson and his team will test the ability of a new drug developed in their lab to kill prostate cancer stem cells. Dr Clarkson believes that these are the cells responsible for driving cancer spread even after surgery or radiotherapy in men with high-risk localised prostate cancers.
Using new drugs to block instructions from a cancer-promoting gene
This project aims to develop and test a brand new class of drug that works by disrupting the genetic instructions produced by a cancer promoting gene that’s inappropriately activated in over 50 per cent of prostate cancers.
ACE: testing a new drug for the PTEN-deficient men
Professor David Waugh and Professor Johann de Bono are combining research in the lab, and clinical research in men, to help men with a mutation in the gene PTEN and more likely to become resistant to treatments. The treatment aims to activate the immune system, and so could be a gateway into using immunotherapy in prostate cancer.
Sidestepping hormone resistance
This team is looking to develop new drug targets to prevent, delay or reverse advanced prostate cancer.
Building an atlas to personalise radiotherapy treatment
This project looks to develop a tool to work out which men need additional radiotherapy treatment for cancer that has spread outside the prostate to the pelvic lymph nodes.
Using a cancer-killing virus to give men a long-term cure for prostate cancer
Funded research by Professor Hardev Pandha of the University of Surrey which will look at combining the reovirus with other drugs called checkpoint blockers to treat prostate cancer.
Personalising treatments for the different ways that individual cancer cells respond
This project looks into how patients respond to therapy with the aim of matching each individual patient to the best available treatment.
Could bacterial infections cause aggressive prostate cancer?
This project looks into whether bacteria may be involved in prostate cancer development thus presenting opportunities to halt or prevent cancer development through the use of antibiotics.
On the TRAIL of a new prostate cancer therapy
Dr Zwacka and his team will look into how well, and how safely, a cancer-killing protein loaded into adult stem cells can infiltrate and kill prostate cancer cells in the main prostate tumour and elsewhere in the body.
Identifying novel mechanisms of prostate cancer cell growth
Funded research by Professor David Elliott of University of Newcastle into understanding how male hormone testosterone controls the growth of prostate cancer cells.