Major funding for cancer research in York

Yorkshire Cancer Research has awarded £2.15m to the University of York for prostate cancer stem cell research.

The five-year funding will allow the university’s YCR Cancer Research Unit to explore the molecular properties that allow prostate cancer stem cells - widely regarded as the “root” cause of all prostate cancers in men - to survive, spread and resist treatment.

Scientists, led by cancer specialist Professor Norman Maitland, will look at the DNA sequence of prostate cancer stem cells to determine for the first time what is missing from the sequence.

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With York-based drug development company Pro-cure Therapeutics, the scientists also aim to make a new generation of cancer drugs to target prostate cancer stem cells and tackle the root cause of the disease.

Professor Maitland said: “Many years ago, scientists studying cancer proposed the existence of a special type of cell within the tumour, known as a cancer stem cell.

“This cell is thought to be responsible for the spread of the cancer, and remains as a treatment resistant ‘root’ after various forms of radio and chemotherapy.

“But only recently have scientists been able to isolate such cells from most of the major cancers and their existence is giving rise to new ideas about how to treat and even cure cancers.

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“In York we have developed the means to obtain these cells specifically from prostate cancers, now the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men, and the properties of prostate cancer stem cells do indeed suggest that they form this treatment resistant core.”

Professor Maitland said his team aimed to explore the molecular properties that allow the cancer stem cells to survive and resist treatment, using several different strategies.

He said the team will examine the arrangement of the proteins that coat the DNA and how they are modified - a gene control mechanism known as epigenetics.

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