Immunotherapy for prostate cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development of novel immunotherapies for prostate cancer
IRAS ID
107115
Contact name
Oussama Elhage
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust
Research summary
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer that affects men in the UK. Treatment options to cure this cancer include x-ray or removal by surgery. These are effective but can have serious side effects like bleeding, incontinence, and impotence. We are studying a new treatment approach using the person’s own immune-system to fight prostate cancer. We are using proteins known as cytokines to stimulate the immune-system to fight prostate cancer. We want to find which of these cytokines can work best to kill prostate cancer-cells. To examine the effectiveness of these drugs, we are developing a novel experimental model where tumour cells from a patient are grown in the presence of immune cells from the same patient. We will create cell lines from the tumour cells to study how the immune system affects cancer cells either in culture dishes or when grown in mice. This model will show how a patient’s immune cells are affected by the prostate cancer-cells and will allow us to find out which immunotherapeutic agents are best at boosting the immune response within the tumour itself. We will be testing novel immunotherapeutic proteins that can localise to the tumour containing organ where they are injected. This potentially can provide a safe and relatively cheap cure for early prostate cancer because we will be using very small quantities of therapeutic agents which can be made very easily in our department which have been shown not to have any systemic side effects.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/EE/0044
Date of REC Opinion
15 May 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion