Scientists have found a way to treat prostate cancer more effectively. Blocking a gene called IGF1R can make prostate cancer cells more sensitive to radiotherapy and certain kinds of chemotherapy, Cancer Research UK found. Prostate cancer, which kills 10,000 men in the UK each year and is the second highest cause of cancer deaths among men, is notoriously difficult to treat. Using new technology, RNA interference, the team are able to switch off a single one of a cell’s 35,000 genes. RNAi uses small molecules to ‘stand in the way’ of specific genes to stop them working. Cancer scientists use the technique to disable genes that have ceased working properly and are causing or sustaining cancer. Dr Val Macaulay, Cancer Research UK’s senior clinical research fellow at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford, said: “One of the most effective ways of treating prostate cancer is to starve it of hormones that feed it in its early stages.
