Dr Jeremy Clark
Senior Research Associate
Jeremy’s research centres around the development and clinical implementation of diagnostic and prognostic tests for Prostate Cancer.
Prostate cancer is present in the majority of men over 55 years old but only a minority of men will die of the disease. Accurate identification of those cancers that will progress and kill the patient is not available at present.
Jeremy’s research examines urine as a source of cancer biomarkers. The idea behind this is as follows: the prostate lays just below the bladder, it is a secretory organ and these secretions carry cells and molecules from all over the prostate to the urethra which then get flushed out of the body on urination. If a cancer is present, then tiny bits of the tumour are also carried with the secretions and these can be detected in urine.
In our pilot study PUR (Prostate Urine Risk Signatures) were able to separate men with low-risk cancer into two groups one of which had 8-times the rate of future development of aggressive cancer that the other.
This has led to the development of the At-Home Urine Collection kit whereby a urine can be collected from men At-Home for Prostate cancer testing in the laboratory.