Precision medicine in advanced and oligometastatic prostate cancer
Prostate cancer that has spread from the prostate remains incurable and lethal. The concepts of both “precision medicine” and “liquid biopsies” in advanced prostate cancer are rapidly gaining interest and attention. Precision medicine is the notion of treating each patient on the basis of genetic changes specific to the individual's cancer which can be targeted, or which may indicate response or resistance to various treatments. Cancer cells from the patient can also be treated with drugs in the laboratory to assess responses prior to treatment in the patient.
The aim is to improve outcomes due to using the right treatment, at the right time, in the right patient. Liquid biopsies from sources such as circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in patients’ blood (cancer cells found in the blood) may allow minimally invasive methods to access cancer cells in order to perform such precision medicine approaches.
Technology developed by colleagues and I has allowed for the first time, reproducible growth of metastatic prostate cancer and CTCs from patients. Utilising novel culture and imaging (PSMA PET) technologies, a precision medicine program will be established for men with advanced and metastatic disease to identify potential effective treatment strategies based on the genetic analyses of individual patient's cancers and the response of their cancer to various treatments in the laboratory in order to direct treatment or identify appropriate specific clinical trials.
Duration
Funding
| PCFA Movember Clinician Scientist Award | $450 000 |
