iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

If you're looking for support with your personal development and building the skills needed for career progression, take a look at our #prostatecancer Researcher Mentoring Scheme. You can register as a mentor, a mentee, or both! prostatecanceruk.org/research/for...

It's vital that early-career researchers are not just exposed to their supervisor's perspectives. Mentoring allows them to talk to people with different backgrounds and career paths. Dr Emma Scott, University of Newcastle. Mentee.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

How do you write an effective response to reviewers when resubmitting after peer review? Discover the dos and don'ts with this expert advice direct from the editors at European Urology @euplatinum.bsky.social @vickersbiostats.bsky.social. Grab a ☕and read more: doi.org/10.1016/j.eu...

European Urology Journal - Editorial. How to write a response to reviewers. Vickers, A.J. et al. (2025).

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

We're looking for mentors who are senior in their field, as well as mentors who've recently established independence, so that our mentees receive the right support at the right time in our #prostatecancer Researcher Mentoring Scheme. Find out more and register: prostatecanceruk.org/research/for...

Mentoring was vital in helping me advance my career. I want to pay that forward to the next generation of prostate cancer researchers. Dr Eileen Parkes, University of Oxford, Mentor.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Professor Helen McCarthy and her team @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social are developing an mRNA vaccine to treat #prostatecancer that has spread or come back. Since 2013 we have supported their work to find innovative treatment solutions. Read more: prostatecanceruk.org/research/res...

We are dedicated to developing innovative treatment solutions, creating a vaccine that activates men's immune systems to recognise and target cancer cells, and opening up a whole new approach to the treatment, and prevention of prostate cancer. Professor Helen McCarthy, Queen's University Belfast.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

How does #prostatecancer recur after radiotherapy? Alisha Pati-Alam, Susan Heavey and the team at UCL highlight this key question in their commentary of an important new meta-analysis on salvage therapies. Grab a ☕and read more: doi.org/10.1038/s413...

Re: Creta, M., Shariat, S.F., Marra, G. et al. Local salvage therapies in patients with radio-recurrent prostate cancer following external beam radiotherapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis (2024). A. Pati-Alam, M. Fittall, J. Withington and S. Heavey.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Our @prostatecanceruk.bsky.social Researcher Mentoring Scheme carefully matches mentees with mentors who have the right experience to support you work towards your individual career goals. Register now to be a mentor, a mentee, or both! 👇 prostatecanceruk.org/research/for...

This exciting and unique scheme has allowed me to gain valuable ideas and tips from other researchers in the field, build my confidence in critical thinking and help build my network. Dr Demi Pritchard, Swansea University, Mentee.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

[7/8] The team hope this research leads to clinical trials in prostate cancer and they plan to look for biomarkers that predict which men may have the best response to NXP800, with the long-term goal of a new treatment option for men whose cancer has become resistant to hormone therapy.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

[6/8] NXP800 inhibited growth in patient-derived explants, and slowed tumour expansion in mouse xenografts. Without the drug, 100% of xenograft tumours doubled in size by 38 days, but when treated with NXP800, only 37.5% of tumours reached that size within the same time frame.

37.5% of tumours treated with active NXP800 reached 200% volume within 38 days, compared to 100% of tumours treated with a control vehicle.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

[5/8] Further elucidating its mechanism of action, NXP800 was shown to activate the unfolded protein response and inhibit key signalling pathways, including AR- and E2F-mediated transcription. The heat shock gene expression signature was significantly associated with Hallmark E2F targets.

Men with greater expression of heat shock genes also had greater expression of genes that are regulated by the E2F transcription factors.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

[4/8] Intriguingly, NXP800 also inhibited the growth of AR-independent prostate cancer cells, indicating its anti-tumour activity is not solely due to blocking AR signalling.

Active NXP800, but not an inactive control, significantly* inhibited the growth of all prostate cancer cell lines, regardless of their Androgen Receptor status.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

[3/8] Conversely, the inhibitor drug NXP800 decreased AR signalling, reduced AR and AR-V7 protein expression, DNA binding and transactivation, and inhibited growth of prostate cancer cells that are resistant to the hormone therapy enzalutamide.

Active NXP800, but not an inactive control, reduced the expression of full-length Androgen Receptor (AR-FL), splice variant Androgen Receptor (AR-V7) and PSA proteins in hormone-therapy resistant prostate cancer cells. GAPDH housekeeping gene shown as a control.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

[2/8] @asharpmedonc.bsky.social and the team @icrlondon.bsky.social conducted transcriptome analysis on biopsies from men with hormone-therapy resistant cancer, revealing higher levels of heat shock gene expression correlated with more androgen receptor (AR) signalling and worse overall survival.

Men with greater expression of heat shock genes had worse overall survival.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Could targeting the Heat Shock Factor 1 (HSF1) pathway be a new avenue for treating hormone therapy-resistant #prostatecancer? @asharpmedonc.bsky.social and the team @icrlondon.bsky.social share their exciting new findings. Grab a ☕and read: doi.org/10.1158/1078...

NXP800 activates the unfolded protein response, altering AR and E2F function to impact castration-resistant prostate cancer growth.
Welti et al. (2025) Clinical Cancer Research.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

Join our Researcher Mentoring Scheme and help shape the future of #prostatecancer research! Whether you're seeking career-focused support and development, or an opportunity to nurture the next generation: 👇Register to be a mentee, a mentor, or both! prostatecanceruk.org/research/for...

Mentoring means you have an independent person you can have a confidential conversation with, completely separate from your own work and your institute. Dr Adam Sharp, Institute of Cancer Research, Mentor.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

🌟New Funding Call Opening Soon 🌟 We urgently need new evidence to update national policy and improve #prostatecancer outcomes for Black men and men experiencing health inequity. Our Real-World Evidence for Health Equity Awards open on 1 Feb 2025. 🔗Read more: prostatecanceruk.org/research/for...

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 is almost full!🔥 🌟Register now for the 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗲𝘄 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀. 🖼️Submit 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘀 by 𝟭𝟱 𝗝𝗮𝗻. 🚀Expand your network and build your skills #prostatecancer #ECRs. 👇Find out more and register through the webpage. prostatecanceruk.org/research/for...

Making Progress, 2 April 2025. Royal College of Nursing, London

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Dr Ning Wang and his team @fohsheffield.bsky.social and the Uni of Leicester have shown that load-bearing exercise can reduce the spread of #prostatecancer to the bones. Since 2017, we have funded their work to help men live longer, healthier lives. 📙Read more: prostatecanceruk.org/research/res...

I hope the data generated from this project will help us provide men with advice about exercise that reduces the risk of prostate cancer spreading to the bones. Dr Ning Wang, University of Sheffield.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

@prostatecanceruk.bsky.social are dedicated to supporting Early Career Researchers in #prostatecancer Register for the final places at Making Progress🔬🧪🧫🥼🧬 💷Attendance is free 📣Travel costs paid for speakers and poster presenters 🚂New travel bursary Read more prostatecanceruk.org/research/for...

Removing financial barriers to attending Making Progress ensures this event is accessible to all, boosting opportunities for researchers to connect, learn and collaborate. Dr Jennie Jeyapalan, University of Nottingham.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

[7/7] Prostate Cancer UK are proud to have launched the £42m TRANSFORM trial to find the best way to screen for prostate cancer, so one day all men at risk are invited for regular tests to find aggressive prostate cancer in time for a cure. prostatecanceruk.org/research/for...

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

[6/7] The new diagnostic pathway resulted in a 79% reduction in harm, with the most serious harm (sepsis) decreasing by 90%. These encouraging results suggest the time is now right for large scale screening trials to find the right way to screen men for prostate cancer.

The proportion of men experiencing harm outcomes after a PSA test across pathways.
The % of men having a PSA test who have a biopsy showing no cancer was 9.34 in the pre-MRI diagnostic pathway (UK routine clinical practice), compared to 2.33 (RAPID - London) and 1.52 (South West England) in the current diagnostic pathway. The % of men having a PSA test who have a biopsy showing insignificant cancer was 3.3 in the pre-MRI diagnostic pathway (UK routine clinical practice), compared to 0.73 (RAPID) and 0.83 (South West England) in the current diagnostic pathway. The % of men having a PSA test who suffer sepsis was 0.21 in the pre-MRI diagnostic pathway (UK routine clinical practice), compared to 0.02 (RAPID-London) in the current diagnostic pathway, with no data available for the South West.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

[3/7] However, the impact of introducing pre biopsy mpMRI and transperineal MRI guided biopsies to the diagnostic pathway has not yet been formally analysed in any screening trial.

A man laying down about to be moved into an MRI scanner by a doctor.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

[2/7] Prostate cancer screening with the PSA blood test is not currently recommended in the UK because clinical trials in the past showed the harms of screening outweighed the benefits.

A sample tube filled with blood, labelled 'PSA Test'

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

1/7] Exciting analysis by @prostatecanceruk.bsky.social re-evaluates the harm to benefit ratio in #prostatecancer screening. Data published by ESMO show that including new technologies in an updated diagnostic pathway results in safer, more effective screening.🧵 doi.org/10.1016/j.es...

N.Norori et al. (2024) Using real world data to bridge the evidence gap left by prostate cancer screening trials. ESMO

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

[6/7] Detection of POLQ-mediated microhomology-mediated end joining as a likely mechanism of PARP inhibitor resistance could lead to the development of new treatment options, such as combined PARP/POLQ inhibition, keeping treatments working and helping men live longer, healthier lives.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

[5/7] The team have demonstrated that real-time monitoring via a blood test could enable early identification of men who are likely to stop responding to olaparib so they can be moved onto alternative treatments sooner as part of their personalised treatment.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

[4/7] In men with BRCA2 deletions, rare subclones of cancer cells without homozygous deletion were detected prior to treatment. Due to the selection pressure of the treatment, the proportion of these DNA repair-competent cells increased over time until the cancer became resistant.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

[3/7] Many of the reversion mutations were flanked by short regions (2 to 6 nucleotides) of DNA sequence microhomology, implicating POLQ-mediated end-joining repair as the reversion mechanism.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

[2/7] Longitudinal analysis of ctDNA detected reversion mutations with the power to restore protein function in 79% of BRCA2/PALB2-mutated cancers by the end of olaparib treatment. Reversions were negatively correlated with radiological progression free survival, and overall survival.

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

PARP inhibitor, olaparib, has transformed treatment for men whose #prostatecancer has DNA repair defects, but most cancers eventually become resistant. @seedgeorge.bsky.social at @icrlondon.bsky.social has uncovered genomic changes that predict how long men will respond.🧵 doi.org/10.1016/j.cc...

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

December News👇 🧠Dr Tristan Barrett uses AI to enhance MRI scans. 🧬A brilliant webinar on #prostatecancer risk and genetics. 🤗Register for our mentoring scheme. 🚂Our new travel bursary for ECRs. 🔬Health equity, sample reuse, & social media! prostatecanceruk.org/research/for...

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Ellie Davison @drelliedavison.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Really looking forward to hearing about the latest #prostatecancer research, plus skill building sessions for Early Career Researchers. Registration is free, and travel costs are covered for presenters. Sign up for this brilliant event, and grow your network! prostatecanceruk.org/research/for...

Making Progress, 2nd April 2025 at the Royal College of Nursing, London. Hosted by Prostate Cancer UK.

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