Prostate cancer sufferers donate tumours to boost research

More than a 100 men who suffered from prostate cancer have donated tumours as part of ground-breaking research into the disease, it emerged today.

Donal Hollywood, Professor of Clinical Oncology at St James’s and St Luke’s Hospital in Dublin, said over 300 tumour samples will be collected within three years to provide a unique resource for probing the disease.

“We need to find new ways to detect and treat this serious disease at an earlier stage in order to have a better chance of successfully curing it,” the medical expert warned.

The latest figures from the National Cancer Registry found there were 2,142 new cases of prostate cancer in 2002 and 544 deaths in 2001.

The oncologist said: “This ground-breaking research will provide us with that opportunity. For example, the currently available PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) test is used to detect prostate cancer and to monitor the effectiveness of existing treatments however we need more precise tests to monitor both of these situations.”

Since the Prostate Cancer Research Consortium was established in June of last year, around 134 prostate cancer tumour samples, 210 blood samples and 45 urine samples have been collected from men in Ireland with prostate cancer.

All of the samples are being collected and ’banked’ to provide a unique resource for ongoing and future research.

The clinical oncology expert said the prostate cancer tumour samples were being screened for changes in proteins and then compared to normal tissues.

If the scientists can identify these proteins in the blood and urine samples they will have identified an indicator that someone has prostate cancer without carrying out a biopsy.

“This new research will allow us to come up with better biomarkers to detect the disease earlier and to monitor the effectiveness of new molecularly targeted treatments with more certainty,” he said.

A report from the National Cancer Registry revealed cases of prostate cancer have almost doubled between 1994 and 2001.

The Prostate Cancer Research Consortium includes 22 senior investigators leading teams of research scientists from six major Irish research institutes including University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, the Mater Misericordiae, St Vincent’s, St James’s and St Luke’s Hospitals.

Dr William Watson, a senior lecturer at the School of Medicine and Medical Science, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, said the consortium involves all of the major hospitals and universities that are treating and researching prostate cancer in Ireland.

The Irish Cancer Society (ICS) has donated €194,000 per annum to the research consortium for the three-year period to 2006 – as part of its overall funding of €2.1m to cancer research between 2004 and 2005.

The society is also working to raise a further €500,000 to ensure the project is funded for another three-year period from 2006 to 2009 and to extend the project to other hospitals.

More money is also due to be raised for cancer research with the Terry Fox 2005 Runs aiming to raise €320,000 this year.

The fundraising events are held in the name of Terry Fox, who in 1980 after losing a leg to bone cancer, set out to run across Canada to raise funds for cancer research.

With one artificial limb, the 21-year-old, ran almost 3,500 miles over 143 days but died before his journey could be completed.

The runs are being held in 80 locations around the country and all the funds raised will be used to fund projects researching a wide range of cancers in different Irish hospitals and universities around Ireland.

:: Information about the events can be sourced from the Terry Fox Run Registration Hotline on 1850 60 60 60 or by visiting www.cancer.ie