Research Projects

Unlocking the power of sugars to revolutionise treatments for bone metastasis’

Targeting glycans to block prostate cancer spread

Prostate cancer often spreads to bone. This can be very painful and there is currently no cure

Glycan sugars surround our cells and cancer makes changes to them

The team have proven that two glycans make prostate cancers grow very fast and more likely to spread to bone

They are testing drugs which interfere with these glycans to see if they might be able to both prevent and treat bone metastasis

These drugs are already being used in other cancers, so if they work, they can be quickly crossed-over to prostate cancer

This could revolutionise prostate cancer treatment for patients at high risk of having their prostate cancer invade their bones, and for patients who already have secondary bone cancer

Newcastle University

Dr Jennifer Munkley

Principal Investigator

Jenny is a Principle Research Associate at Newcastle University focused on exploiting glycan sugars to improve the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.

Dr Ning Wang

Principal Investigator

Ning is a principal investigator at the University of Leicester and his main research interest is using multi-disciplinary research approaches to understand mechanisms involved in prostate cancer dormancy and bone metastasis.

Dr Kirsty Hodgson

Post-doctoral Researcher

Kirsty is a post-doctoral researcher. She has a background in cancer research and is interested in developing new treatments for advanced prostate cancer.

We must stop prostate cancer spreading

There are trillions of cells in the human body which are continuously renewing themselves to replace old or damaged tissue.

When this renewal process gets out of control and begins to invade healthy tissue, it is called cancer. Cancer cells can break away from their original site, such as the prostate, travel around the bloodstream and settle in other parts of the body, forming ‘metastases’ or ‘secondary tumours.’ Prostate cancer often spreads to bone. This can be very painful and there is currently no cure.

Why and how prostate cancer spreads to bone and how to both prevent it from happening and treat it once prostate cancer has taken root in bone are major unanswered questions. Being able to treat bone metastasis would mean many people get to live longer and enjoy a much better quality of life.

Image of Cancer cells breaking away from their original site and forming metastases. Treating prostate cancer bone metastasis.

Image of drugs already being used in other cancers, so if they work, they may treat prostate cancer bone metastasis

The Research Project

In previous research also funded by PCR, the team showed that special sugars, called glycans, which coat all cells in the body and are different to sugars found in food, are important to prostate cancer cells. They help prostate cancer cells both to grow and to spread to bone and settle there. In this new project, the team will take this vital research to the next level, testing new drugs in mice to see if they can prevent bone metastasis and/or limit its impact. As these drugs have already shown promise in other cancers, we hope that, if they are successful, we could have a new treatment for bone metastasis ready for the people who need it relatively quickly. This is because they will already have been proven to be safe in humans, meaning years of testing has already been done.

What will this mean for patients?

We hope that this work will lead to new prostate cancer treatments that can stop cancer from spreading to the bone and can also treat it once it has taken root. This should mean longer, healthier and happier lives for both patients with high-risk of bone metastasis as well as patients who already have bone metastasis.