Your support of The Longest Table supports vital prostate cancer research and care through The Hospital Research Foundation Group, helping countless Australians living with this devastating disease.
The research involves a promising new drug called Ribociclib, which is more commonly used to treat breast cancer but has been shown to have promise in other cancers.
The study is led by Dr Maggie Centenera from the University of Adelaide, located at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, aiming to help guide treatment decisions for men whose prostate cancer has become resistant to existing therapies.
“When prostate cancer is at a stage where it becomes resistant to treatment, sadly it has no cure,” Dr Centenera said.
“We urgently need new, more effective drugs to improve patient survival at this heartbreaking stage.”
Dr Centenara said the use of biomarkers would be used to help predict which patients Ribociclib would work best for.
“An important feature of new drug research is personalising treatment through the use of biomarkers, which not only identifies who should be treated but, equally, who should not be treated with a particular drug due to its lack of efficacy for that population” she said.
“This research will focus on identifying biomarkers to determine which patients Ribociclib will work best for, in order for doctors to be greater informed when making treatment decisions and ultimately improve survival rates for men with advanced prostate cancer.”
Dr Centenera’s research is driven by a deeply personal link to the disease.
Sadly, her grandfather died with prostate cancer, and her dad and four uncles all have prostate cancer; which makes her worried for her brother and son who are at higher risk.
“During my dad’s cancer journey his biggest frustration has been that his doctors aren’t definitive in how he should be treated. Prostate cancer patients are fortunate to have a few treatment options and drugs available to them, but it is currently unclear which would work best for which patient and that is the difficult part.
“My dad doesn’t want to be given options, he wants his doctors to know which treatment will work for him, and this is where my research comes in.”
