Prostate cancer
Why we focus on prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in males in the UK, with over 48,000 new prostate cancer cases diagnosed in the UK each year. Although about half of prostate cancer patients will die with the cancer rather than of it, prostate cancer is still the second leading cause of cancer mortality in males in the UK. It is currently difficult to distinguish between latent and aggressive cancers, and once prostate cancer spreads, it is incurable. Therefore, it is important to identify factors that influence both prostate cancer progression and the therapeutic response, and which could be used to develop biomarkers for tumour behaviour and potential targets for novel therapies.
What we do
- Establish and maintain a male urogenital cancer tissue bank.
- Identify critical genes in the development and progression of prostate cancer using a genome-wide analysis approach.
- Identify biomarkers to predict aggressive prostate cancer.
- Investigate the mechanism and consequence of genomic alterations in prostate cancer development.
- Investigate the genetic and environmental factors associated with key genomic alterations in prostate cancer.
- Develop experimental therapies based on specific genetic changes in cancer cells.
- Investigate the potential of using gene therapy for prostate cancer treatment, including the application of adenovirus.
- Investigate anti-tumour efficacy and mechanisms of co-inhibitors of androgen receptor activity in late stage prostate cancer.
- Run clinical trials of optimised hormone therapy for prostate cancer, and alternative hormone and chemotherapy.
- Orchid
- Association for International Cancer Research
- Cancer Research UK
- GlaxoSmithKline
- Medical Research Council
- Noninvasive Detection of Clinically Significant Prostate Cancer Using Circulating Tumor Cells. J Urol (2020) 203(1):73-82. PMID: 31389764
- The Novel Association of Circulating Tumor Cells and Circulating Megakaryocytes with Prostate Cancer Prognosis. Clin Cancer Res (2017) 23(17):5112-5122. PMID: 28615267
- Identification of ZDHHC14 as a novel human tumour suppressor gene. Yeste-Velasco et al. J Pathol (2014) 232(5):566-77. PMID: 24407904
- Focal salvage therapy for localized prostate cancer recurrence after external beam radiotherapy: A pilot study. Ahmed et al. Cancer (2012) 118(17):4148-55. PMID: 22907704
- Synergistic and Selective Cancer Cell Killing Mediated by the Oncolytic Adenoviral Mutant AdΔΔ and Dietary Phytochemicals in Prostate Cancer Models. Adam et al. Hum Gene Ther (2012) 23(9):1003-15. PMID: 22788991
- Modification of the early gene enhancer-promoter improves the oncolytic potency of adenovirus 11. Wong et al. Mol Ther (2012) 20(2):306-16. PMID: 22086234
- Seven novel prostate cancer susceptibility loci identified by a mutli-stage genome-wide association study. Kote-Jarai et al. Nat Genet (2011) 43(8): 785-91. PMID: 21743467
Image credit: Prostate cancer cells. Anne Weston, Francis Crick Institute. CC BY-NC