Prostate Cancer UK funds Scottish researchers  

Researchers from the Universities of Dundee, Glasgow and Strathclyde have been awarded £691,000 as part of the first wave of funding made available through Prostate Cancer UK’s ambitious new research strategy. A colossal £11million will be injected into research this year alone to focus on the key areas of understanding risk, improving diagnosis, and improving treatment options.

Dr Iain Frame, Director of Research at Prostate Cancer UK, said, “Due to a long legacy of underfunding and neglect we still know shockingly little about why prostate cancer kills 10,000 men every year. Prostate Cancer UK has vowed to scale up its mission to deliver so much more and so much better for men.

“Thanks to the support of the Movember Foundation, Prostate Cancer UK has recently tripled its research spend to up to £25million over the next three years. While this provides a fantastic launch pad, we desperately need more money to crack this disease once and for all,” he added.

Mr Ghulam Nabi, Senior Lecturer in surgical uro-oncology at the University of Dundee, has received £237,000 to investigate whether new ultrasound techniques can be used to diagnose prostate cancer and identify whether it is aggressive or not; Professor Rob Mairs from the University of Glasgow’s Institute of Cancer Sciences has received £205,000 to improve radiation treatment by directly targeting prostate cancer cells and Professor Simon Mackay, from the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Science at the University of Strathclyde, has received £249,000 to develop a new ground-breaking drug to treat advanced prostate cancer.

Principal Investigator Dr Jenny Worthington, Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Ulster is also currently researching into the use of a new drug combination therapy to improve the outcome of treatment for advanced prostate cancer. Bioreductive agents are a type of chemotherapy drug that only work in hypoxic conditions and kill the aggressive hypoxic cells. Mouse models that include a bioreductive drug with normal prostate cancer treatment were found to stop the tumour from growing so quickly, but more importantly, stopped metastatic deposits from forming. The purpose of Dr Worthington’s study is to work out the best way to give these bioreductive drugs to patients.

For further information, and a summary of all research projects, please visit http://prostatecanceruk.org/research/funded-research?year=2013