Dr Kevin Koo, from UQ’s Centre for Clinical Research, has been awarded one of five new research grants worth a combined value of $1.2 million from the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA).
Dr Koo was identified as an emerging talent in the pursuit of knowledge that will improve the lives of Australian men with prostate cancer, their partners, families and carers.
The project is titled Interrogating the Prostate Tumor Microenvironment for Circulating Radiotherapy Biomarkers to Personalize Targeted Alpha-Therapy.
Dr Koo said that despite the overall survival benefit of modern molecular-targeted radiotherapy for advanced prostate cancer, treatment resistance is inevitable and all patients eventually succumbed to their disease.
“To improve molecular understanding of such resistance mechanisms, my team and I will work with Australian industry partner AdvanCell,” Dr Koo said.
“AdvanCell is conducting the first-ever TheraPb clinical study of 212Pb-based targeted radiotherapy in late-stage prostate cancer patients.
“By performing cutting-edge molecular analysis of patient blood samples from the study, we aim to develop world-first predictive molecular targets for 212Pb-based targeted radiotherapy.”
The project is expected to deliver direct clinical benefit by facilitating radiotherapy resistance prediction and immune response monitoring for prostate cancer targeted radiotherapy.
Prostate Cancer Foundation Australia’s Chief of Mission, Professor Jeff Dunn AO, said they were continually looking for new ways to effectively prevent, detect, treat, and eliminate prostate cancer through research.
“Our hope is that these grants will accelerate new discoveries to support the Australian men who will be diagnosed with the disease this year, and over the next several years.
“But this is only possible by increasing our investments into research, so that we can deliver the breakthroughs that are so desperately needed to move us closer towards a cure.”
