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21 Oct 2024
Our new ÂŁ1.5m AI and genetics project to find men with deadliest prostate cancers early
The researchers aim to develop a test that can spot which men have aggressive disease at diagnosis – giving these men a better chance of getting the vital treatment they need.
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Detecting aggressive disease
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Doctors could predict whether a man’s prostate cancer will be aggressive at the point of diagnosis – giving him the best chance of targeted treatment before it spreads – thanks to a new £1.5 million research project we’re funding.
The research will harness artificial intelligence (AI) and cutting-edge genetic analysis to look for tell-tale genetic signatures in blood and tumour samples from men whose cancer is aggressive.
This information will be used to develop a tool that can predict from a blood sample whether a man’s prostate cancer is going to be aggressive.
That would help these men get targeted, tailor-made treatments before their cancer begins to spread – ensuring that the length and quality of their lives isn’t left to chance.
Spotting DNA changes linked to aggressive prostate cancer
Professor Ros Eeles
The research will be led by Professor Ros Eeles, a world-renowned geneticist at The Institute of Cancer Research, London who has helped find more than 160 genetic differences that contribute to a man’s risk of prostate cancer.
She’ll be joined by experts from the University of East Anglia, the University of Manchester, the University of Oxford, and the University of Cambridge.
Explaining the project, Professor Eeles said: “We have a huge amount of genetic data from thousands of men who come from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities around the world.
“We’re going to use advanced AI to look at this data and identify patterns that will unlock answers to which specific DNA changes are linked to more aggressive prostate cancers that spread quickly.
“Armed with this knowledge, we’ll develop a model that can predict whether a man’s prostate cancer is going to be aggressive based on a simple blood sample. This will help clinicians overcome significant challenges and could revolutionise the way prostate cancer is diagnosed, treated, and managed.”
Researchers hope the tool could predict from a blood sample whether a man’s prostate cancer will be aggressive
Predicting whether cancer will come back
Professor Eeles and her colleagues will also study samples from men who’ve undergone radiotherapy to develop a similar AI model to predict which men’s prostate cancer is likely to come back after treatment – enabling clinicians to tailor therapies and monitor these men closely to prevent it.
The researchers will test the accuracy of these models on samples from men who’ve been diagnosed with prostate cancer and are on active surveillance, as well as
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