The ImmunoPro project brings together an outstanding team of internationally recognised researchers, including Emeritus Professor Robert (‘Frank’) Gardiner and RBWH urologists Dr Matthew Roberts and Associate Professor John Yaxley.
The team is working to develop a therapeutic vaccine tailored to each prostate cancer patient. The therapeutic vaccine would use immunotherapy, post-prostatectomy, to enhance and increase the patient’s own cancer-fighting cells, reducing the need for radiation and hormone therapy.
The therapy will be developed to treat the third of all prostate cancer patients who have prostate cancer return after initial treatment, resigning them to radiation or hormone therapy, both of which can have debilitating side-effects.
The ImmunoPro therapy has the potential to be extended to men in other advanced stages of prostate cancer, such as after initial radiotherapy, which is difficult to treat.
Below are some shocking prostate cancer statistics:
- One in 7 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer by the age of 85.
- While it is more common in older men, younger men also get prostate cancer, with 37% of cases diagnosed in men under 65.
- More men die of prostate cancer than women die of breast cancer.
To donate or find out more about this RBWH led research visit:
https://fundraise.rbwhfoundation.com.au/donate-for-prostate