Four New Research Grants Awarded To Help Fight 'Taboo' Disease, Prostate Cancer, UK

Main Category: Prostate / Prostate Cancer
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 15 Jul 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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The Prostate Cancer Charity is supporting four new research projects across the UK.

The projects, totaling over £500,000, aim to increase scientific understanding of prostate cancer and benefit current and future generations of men affected by the disease and their partners and families.

The successful projects cover a range of key research issues including the use of genetic markers to predict the progression of prostate cancer and the use of specific drugs to improve the success of existing treatments for the disease.

In 2007, the Charity awarded its first fully competitive UK-wide grants after a strategic review which decided that it should fund the highest quality prostate cancer research across the country. This year, the Charity identified four more high quality projects to add to its growing research portfolio.

All the applications were peer reviewed by an international panel and the strongest applications were selected by a Research Advisory Committee made up of leading researchers, clinicians and men who have been affected by prostate cancer.

One of the four projects the Charity is funding will be led by Dr Axel Thomson and based at the Queen's Institute of Medical Research, Edinburgh. He will be investigating the role prostate stromal cells - the cells that help hold the prostate together - play in the growth of the disease.

Dr Thomson said: "We are taking a new and radical approach to understanding how tumors grow by looking at how special non-cancer cells drive prostate cancer cell growth. The cells we are looking at play an unexpected and important role in cancer. We hope that this exciting new approach will eventually lead to novel ways to diagnose and treat prostate cancer."

Dr Stuart Griffiths, Research Services Officer at The Prostate Cancer Charity, said: "We have built on the successful launch of our first UK-wide competitive call for research proposals last year, by funding more high quality research projects. It is encouraging to see the amount of academic interest in what has traditionally been considered a taboo disease.

"Research into prostate cancer is a long process, but it is only by investing in high quality projects that we can add to the research effort and hope to make a difference to thousands of men and their families."

Notes

Interviews with Charity staff, funded scientists and case studies are available on request from The Prostate Cancer Charity's Press Office.

The four projects will look at the following areas. Further details are available on request:

An investigation into the role prostate stromal cells play in prostate cancer. Dr Axel Thomson, Queens Institute for Medical Research, Edinburgh.

The use of two genetic markers to predict the aggressiveness of prostate cancer and how it will respond to different treatments. Professor Colin Cooper, Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton.

The role of the protein, N-methyltransferase, in prostate cancer. Dr Lakjaya Buluwela, Imperial College London.

The use of nitric oxide to improve the effectiveness of radiotherapy for prostate cancer. Professor Fouad Habib, Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre.

The Prostate Cancer Charity has invested over seven million pounds into research since it was founded in 1996.

New applications for the third round of grants from The Prostate Cancer Charity will be invited from September 2008. More information is available here.

To find out more about The Prostate Cancer Charity's Research Advisory Committee please visit here.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in men in the UK. Every year in the UK 35,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer. One man dies every hour of prostate cancer in the UK.

African Caribbean men are three times more likely to develop prostate cancer than white men.

The Prostate Cancer Charity is striving for a world where lives are no longer limited by prostate cancer. The Charity is fighting prostate cancer on every front - through research, support, information and campaigning.

If you have any queries about prostate cancer, call The Prostate Cancer Charity's confidential Helpline 0800 074 8383 which is staffed by specialist nurses and open from 10am to 4pm Monday to Friday and Wednesdays from 7 - 9pm or visit http://www.prostate-cancer.org.uk

The Prostate Cancer Charity is a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC), an umbrella organisation of the leading medical and health research charities in the UK. AMRC members aim to follow the highest standards of accountability in medical and health research funding, and membership of AMRC requires the use of independent peer review in the allocation of all grants and awards for research.

http://www.prostate-cancer.org.uk