Below the Belt Award

Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide, significantly impacting both quality of life and mortality. Traditional treatments, including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, often come with severe side effects and varying effectiveness. The EXIT PC project aims to improve treatment outcomes and survival in prostate cancer by leveraging extracellular vesicles to develop informed and personalized therapeutic strategies. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are tiny, naturally occurring vesicles secreted by cells that play a crucial role in cell-to-cell communication. They contain a wealth of information, including proteins, lipids, and genetic material (DNA, RNA), which reflect the condition of their cells of origin. In the context of cancer, EVs released by tumour cells can provide critical insights into the tumor’s behaviour, progression, and response to treatments. By analysing the EVs present in the blood of ENZAMET (ANZUP 1304) patients, this study aims to obtain a non-invasive “snapshot” of the tumor’s molecular landscape. This approach could help identify novel biomarkers associated with prostate cancer, aiding in early diagnosis, and monitoring treatment resistance and disease progression. EXIT PC would broaden ANZUP’s capacity to analyze circulating biomarkers in blood. By decoding the molecular messages carried by EVs, this precision medicine approach has the potential to improve the efficacy of treatments and enhance the overall quality of life for people diagnosed with prostate cancer.