Below the Belt Award

Currently, one of the major research priorities in prostate cancer involves gaining greater insight into the mechanisms by which the disease becomes resistant to various therapies. The area of research that focuses on better predicting who will and will not benefit from certain treatments is known as biomarker discovery. In recent years, the interest in using circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) detected in the blood of patients with prostate cancer as a means of biomarker discovery has grown significantly. Metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC) is a form of prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, but the tumour cells are still susceptible to testosterone suppression therapy. Efforts to research ctDNA in men with mHSPC has been hampered by the inability to detect the very small amounts of tumour DNA that is present in the bloodstream. As a result, very little is known about the genetic makeup of mHSPC. We have custom-designed a laboratory test that can reliably detect low amounts of ctDNA in the bloodstream. We wish to perform this test in a group of men with mHSPC, and report on the genetic mutations that are commonly present. This analysis is critical for furthering our understanding of advanced prostate cancer and improving the outcomes for patients with this disease. Furthermore, lessons learnt from the development and improvement of this test could be used to more accurately analyse patient samples from ANZUP-led clinical studies (e.g. ENZAMET, ENZARAD).