To develop new and more active drugs to oppose prostate cancer development and progression we need to understand which molecules are important for the tumour to grow. Once we identify these molecules, we can design drugs to block them and therefore block tumour growth.
They have identified a molecule, ABCC1, which is important for the growth of prostate cancer cells. They have studied drugs that are able to block this molecule. In order to get these drugs ready for clinical trials in men, the researchers performed experiments to validate the efficacy of the drugs in human prostate cancer cells and they have tested these molecules in animal models.
A drug which blocks ABCC1 appears to slow prostate cancer cell growth and boosts the effect of a chemotherapeutic agent. The next step will be to develop new drugs to target ABCC1 specifically and test these in combination with existing drugs.
Intitution - Queen Mary University of London
Researcher - Professor Marco Falasca
Grant award - £178,587
Duration - 2013-2016
Reference - PG12-23