£300,000 grant to tackle prostate cancer

Experts at the Institute of Cancer Therapeutics at Bradford University will use the cash from the Prostate Cancer Charity to develop drugs to fight the disease.

In one project, £260,000 is being handed to a team led by researcher Jason Gill to develop a ground-breaking drug which remains inactive until it comes into contact with the cancer when it releases a toxic chemical which attacks the tumour.

An additional grant of £50,000 has been given to a second scientist, Helen Sheldrake, to help develop a treatment to stop advanced prostate cancer from spreading to and growing in the bone by blocking a type of protein which allows the cancer to survive, grow and travel through the bloodstream.

Kate Holmes, research manager at the charity, said: “These projects were selected as we believe that they will be able to deliver key results which will help provide real benefit to men living in the very final stages of this disease for whom very few treatments remain.”