Posted: April 28 2022
The Impact of Your Money – Institute of Cancer Research
Your Impact
The Bob Willis Fund is launching a new partnership with The Institute of Cancer Research, London.
From the money raised at our #BlueforBob Day, we are providing funding to support the ICR’s important research into developing a prostate cancer screening programme in the UK. We are delighted to hear more from Ros Eeles, Professor of Oncogenetics at the ICR about the impact of your donations.
“My team is decoding the complexities of cancer genetics so that we can help more men survive prostate cancer. Our funding from The Bob Willis Fund will support our development of a targeted screening programme in the UK for prostate cancer. We believe that if our research is a success, we could have a programme up and running in the UK within three to five years, allowing us to spot many men earlier in their disease course when their cancer is easier to treat and potentially curable.
Much like the best fast bowlers, we’re honing in on a target – using patterns within DNA to select men whom we really need to find because prostate cancer is likely to shorten their life – and ensuring they get regular testing and monitoring. By targeting our approach we can overcome many of the weaknesses of a standard PSA test.
We are particularly interested in unravelling why Black men are at greater risk of prostate cancer through our PROFILE study. Black men are twice as likely as men of European ancestry to develop prostate cancer, and understanding why they have this increased risk profile will help us save lives.
We’re also looking for patterns in DNA which might hold the key to discovering new treatments, especially for men who have no other options available.”
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