Urological cancer research at CUH is part of the CRUK Cambridge Centre Urological Malignancies Virtual Institute.
Mission and Vision
As part of the CRUK Cambridge Centre, the Urological Malignancies Virtual Institute (UMVI)’s (opens in a new tab) mission is to cultivate a world-leading research environment for Cambridge researchers across all disciplines working towards understanding how adult urological tumours arise, develop, spread and evade therapy.
The UMVI aim to do this by delivering high impact research that directly benefits patients; training future leaders at all stages of their careers; and delivering clinical excellence with embedded research through Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, including the future Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital.
Leadership and members
The UMVI is co-led by:
Translational research is led by:
The UMVI’s membership of over 100 includes researchers from medicine, surgery, oncology, general practice, urology, nursing, pathology, physics and mathematics, including leaders in their fields.
Research
Current research co-ordinated by the UMVI:
Kidney cancer:
- WIRE (opens in a new tab) A clinical trial that makes use of the existing 4-week surgical window-of-opportunity between the decision to operate on surgically resectable renal cell cancer (RCC) and surgery itself. During this pre-operative window, patients in the study receive additional drug treatment for their cancer.
- ARTIST (opens in a new tab) A translational research study designed to identify and characterize novel biomarkers for the optimal detection, monitoring and treatment of renal cell cancer (RCC).
- RAMPART/TransRAMPART (opens in a new tab) RAMPART was a phase III controlled clinical platform trial of adjuvant therapy in patients with resected primary renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with high or intermediate risk of relapse. TransRAMPART is a translational sub-study within RAMPART, designed to develop a bio-repository of baseline and longitudinal samples that will enable researchers to address key clinical questions around optimal management of initially localised renal cancer. Note that RAMPART and TransRAMPART are closed to recruitment.
Prostate cancer:
- PICASSO: Aims to understand the differences in the way prostate cancerous tumours grow more precisely and to improve how prostate cancer is detected, monitored, and treated. By linking data from clinical samples to patient outcomes, the study will provide a foundation for informing more accurate tests and personalised treatments for patients with prostate cancer.
- ASCERTAIN (opens in a new tab) Was a phase I trial exploiting the window-of-opportunity between decision to undertake surgery and the surgery itself. The study analysed the mechanism of action of AZD5305 (a PARP-inhibitor) and darolutamide (an androgen receptor inhibitor), alone and in combination.
- TAPS02 (opens in a new tab) Was a potentially practice-changing randomised phase II clinical trial - to test the clinical value of short-term androgen targeted therapy (sATT) to delay disease progression in men at the highest risk of disease progression when managed by active surveillance.
Bladder cancer:
- COBRA (opens in a new tab) Investigates whether a different type of treatment could be a good option for people with early bladder cancer. The study investigates whether Gem-Doce works as well as standard of care BCG to prevent cancer recurring with fewer side effects.