QUB Researchers Undertake £2.2m Prostate Cancer Project

Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Leeds have been granted £2.2m to lead research into prostate cancer.

Undertaken in collaboration with the Movember Foundation and Prostate Cancer UK, the funding has been announced as millions of people across the world begin growing moustaches as part of the annual Movember campaign.

The project will seek to identify what life is like for the 250,000 men living with an beyond the disease in the UK, and what steps can be taken to improve it.

Researchers will analyse the experiences of more than 100,000 men who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer between one and three years ago. The aim is to identify how a diagnosis of prostate cancer impacts a man’s daily life and work out which factors lead to poorer outcomes for some.

The award has been granted to Dr Anna Gavin at Queen’s University Belfast and Dr Adam Glaser at the University of Leeds, who will be working with other researchers at Oxford Brookes University, the University of Southampton and Public Health England.

Dr Gavin said: "I am excited to be involved in this project which promises to shine a spotlight on what men are really experiencing throughout their journey with prostate cancer, and how they feel about it. Every man invited to take part in this study will have valuable information that they can share, whatever their experience, background or stage of treatment. Maybe even after the cancer is gone, some men have problems dealing with the side effects of treatment and don’t know who to talk to, or are embarrassed about doing so – they may not even know if they’re the only person feeling this way. By responding to this research they will be helping bring those issues into the open so that they can be effectively addressed for years to come. This research continues Queen’s commitment to advancing knowledge and changing lives."

(IT/MH)