Prostate Cancer Research and Breast Cancer Now have joined forces to launch a new £600k funding call to help researchers tackle the spread of cancers to the bone – otherwise known as bone metastasis.
The initiative, known as the Bone Metastasis Collaboration Fund, will centre around uncovering why tumours spread to the bone in either prostate cancer or breast cancer.
Researchers will also be tasked with exploring the underlying mechanisms behind bone metastases for cancers generally.
Almost incurable
Across the UK, 55,000 women a year are diagnosed with breast cancer, while 52,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer over the same timeframe.
Of those who die from prostate cancer and breast cancer, 80% and 70% have secondary tumours in their bones respectively.
Both these cancers are hormonally driven and treated similarly, through:
- Surgery
- Hormone therapy
- Radiation
- Targeted therapies
Once the cancer has spread to the bones, it is not only extremely painful but is almost always incurable.
Those who receive a secondary diagnosis who already had breast cancer, survive for an average of three years. Only a third of men with prostate cancer survive longer than five years after being diagnosed with bone metastases.
Going further and faster
“Every year in the UK, around 11,500 women die from breast cancer and 70% of them will have experienced bone metastases, which can cause extreme pain and is almost always an indication that the cancer has sadly become incurable,” explained Breast Cancer Now’s director of research, support and influencing, Dr Simon Vincent.
“We’re delighted to have partnered with Prostate Cancer Research to fund crucial research into why and how cancer spreads to the bones and we look forward to seeing how the findings can help us develop kinder, more effective treatments for people with breast or prostate cancer.”
Director of research and communications at Prostate Cancer Research, Dr Naomi Elster, added: “We are excited by what partnering with Breast Cancer Now could mean for people with prostate or breast cancer. It is a tragedy that despite the many advances we have made, bone metastasis is still damaging and ending far too many lives in both prostate and breast cancers.
“We believe that our research efforts to tackle cancer that takes root in the bone will go further and faster if we work together and learn from each other than if we were both trying to tackle this huge problem independently.
The community is working towards an ultimate future where cancer is not feared, she added.
The next edition of the National Health Executive digital magazine will be published tomorrow, where Breast Cancer Now’s associate director of policy, evidence and influencing, Melanie Sturtevant, will detail the next steps for the drug, Enhertu.
Image credit: iStock
