There are a range of treatments available for prostate cancer depending on the stage of the cancer, the person’s general health, age and more.
Early detection is crucial for positive outcomes from the disease. Together with our Group charity Australian Prostate Cancer, we are funding research focused on the detection, treatment and management of prostate cancer to improve the outlook for the men we love.
Prostate Cancer Support
Current tests for detecting prostate cancer struggle to accurately distinguish between aggressive tumours requiring treatment, versus slow-growing tumours that do not need to be treated at all.
Researcher
Dr Luke Selth is leading a project to determine whether a new type of blood marker can improve our ability to differentiate between aggressive and slow-growing tumours at the time of diagnosis, and therefore enable more personalised treatment.
Investigating how different cell types in a prostate tumour interact, to identify the drivers of prostate cancer growth and understand why some treatments fail in some patients.
Researcher
With this knowledge, Dr Chui Yan Mah hopes better strategies can be developed to kill cancer cells more effectively, prevent treatment resistance and improve survival.
Progressing pre-clinical studies on a revolutionary formulation of Zytiga that will speed up the drug’s digestion and enhance absorption in the body, to avoid the inconvenience of having to fast before and after taking the drug.
Researcher
Professor Clive Prestidge and his research group have developed clever little nanocarriers which can take the drugs across biological barriers or help them target the right area within the body, and ultimately work a lot better.
Progressing research into prostate cancer which has become resistant to existing therapies, by focusing on a promising drug Ribociclib and using biomarkers to predict which patients it will work best for.
Researcher
Dr Maggie Centenera says personalising treatment through the use of biomarkers is an important feature of the research and managing prostate cancer.
Producing a “report card” which outlines the outcomes of various prostate cancer treatments to help prostate cancer patients make informed treatment choices when diagnosed with the disease. It will evaluate survival, cancer recurrence, secondary treatment and impacts on urinary, bowel and sexual function for different prostate cancer treatments, based on the experiences of men previously diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Researcher
Dr Kerri Beckmann is driving the work, which will evaluate survival, cancer recurrence, secondary treatment and impacts on urinary, bowel and sexual function for different prostate cancer treatments, based on the experiences of men previously diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Improving early detection of patients whose prostate cancer is more likely to spread to advanced incurable stages, by establishing biomarkers which can distinguish high-risk patients and then develop new treatments to improve the patient’s outcomes and quality of life.
Researcher
Dr Zeyad Nassar’s research is focusing on fatty acid oxidisation (FAO), a process where fats are broken down to generate energy and which has been discovered as a main source of fuel for prostate cancer cell survival.
Progressing research on a newly-discovered protein called CDK9 which drives prostate cancer growth, and determine whether CDK9 inhibitors can stop the growth of lethal forms of prostate cancer.
Researcher
Associate Professor Luke Selth is working to understand how CDK9 inhibitors work in the process of both blocking the growth of and killing prostate cancer cells.
Men with prostate cancer have high levels of unmet need around loss of sexual function following treatment, yet the majority don’t seek help.
Researcher
Dr Kerri Beckman is working on a project aimed at identifying factors that prevent or encourage men to seek help for sexual concerns, to then develop an optimal care pathway to improve help-seeking for sexual issues.
Identifying a list of new and existing drugs which show promise in changing an offending hormone receptor in breast cancer from cancer-promoting to cancer-inhibiting, and taking these new drugs to clinical trials.
Researcher
Professor Wayne Tilley and her collaborators are progressing this exciting list of drugs to clinical trials!
Contributing to the South Australian Prostate Cancer Clinical Outcomes Collaborative (SA-PCCOC) database which holds data for more than 18,000 men to assist research insights and inform best approaches to care.
The database helps oncologists and urologists provide more accurate, research-informed recommendations to men who are faced with a prostate cancer diagnosis.
