Professor Johann de Bono

Tailored treatments for prostate cancer

Professor de Bono is based at The Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden in London and specialises in improving prostate cancer treatment. Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in men in the UK. Some men have more aggressive types of the disease that stop responding to hormone therapy and there’s an urgent need to find better options for these patients.

Professor de Bono has led ground-breaking clinical trials testing new treatments for men with this disease, for example abiraterone, cabazitaxel and enzalutamide. He is currently leading the TOPARP trial, which is finding out whether a drug called olaparib (Lynparza) improves survival for men with advanced prostate cancer that has stopped responding to treatment.

Olaparib targets a molecule called PARP, and exploits weaknesses in cancer cells' ability to repair damage to their DNA.

They are also looking for ‘biological signposts’ to predict which cancers are most likely to respond to olaparib, which will help doctors identify men who are likely to benefit from the new treatment.

Professor de Bono’s research will be instrumental in meeting the urgent need for better prostate cancer treatments that will help more men survive the disease.

You can read more about the TOPARP trial here: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-us/cancer-news/news-report/2015-10-28-men-with-advanced-prostate-cancer-could-benefit-from-targeted-drug

Prostate cancer
Biomarker research
Clinical trials

The Institute of Cancer Research, London

johann.de-bono@icr.ac.uk

lab website