Pro-Cure’s work is currently focused on prostate cancer – a significant cancer with major unmet needs and our therapeutic targets have therefore been identified and validated in the context of prostate cancer.
- In 2007 800,000 new cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed globally and over 250,000 men died of the disease.
- Up to one in six men will develop the disease during their lifetime
- Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men in the US and the third most common cancer worldwide.
- More than two million men in the US suffer with prostate cancer and, according to the American Cancer Society, 186,450 new cases were diagnosed in the US in 2008, with an estimated 28,660 deaths
- Second most common cause of cancer death in men worldwide
- In the absence of PSA testing the disease is mostly undetected until advanced
- Survival rates when cancer has escaped the prostatic capsule are poor
- Conventional prostate cancer therapies are at best palliative with debilitating side effects and even when caught early >20% men suffer a recurrence
Cancer drug discovery is traditionally based on the use of cultured cancer cell lines for screening, hit-validation/lead profiling, preliminary preclinical efficacy studies and toxicology. The major weaknesses in these tools arise from the fact that these cell lines are either animal-based or are significantly modified through immortalisation so as to provide the numbers of cells required for this strategy, while losing much of their physiological relevance as a consequence. Thus, the current discovery tools for new therapies to tumours are considerably flawed and have resulted in remission rather than cure in most cases.
New therapeutics that can target CSCs have the promise to significantly change and improve the prognosis and management of this serious disease. Evidence supports that CSCs:
- Initiate primary tumours
- Resist current therapies
- Cause recurrent tumours
- Cause drug-resistant tumours
- Play a fundamental role in metastasis
New therapies effective against CSCs therefore offer the opportunity to overcome the unmet needs for a major positive impact on cancer treatment and management, with significant benefits of survival, outcomes and quality of life.
