By Samia Burridge, Sponsor Scientific.
Prostate Cancer Research (PCR) funds scientific research on two themes which can be summarized as: classifying cancers and predicting patients’ response to different treatments; and finding new treatments for advanced cancers. Prostate cancer recently became the most common cancer in England. Yet according to PCR’s Chairman, “research continues to be underfunded” receiving only 5% of all cancer research spend. PCR’s mission by 2023 is to “scale up the amount of our research grants to £5m and projects to at least 23 per year, seed-funding scientists with great ideas to accelerate progress”. Their research strategy also talks about working with younger researchers and supporting efforts to bring down the cost of treatment. Founded in 1988, PCR is still a relatively young charity operating in a field (basic research) where advances are unpredictable and may not reach patients for many years. But it has grown significantly in recent years. It now wants to further expand the funding it provides to excellent science. For this it needs to raise income from individual donors (among other things, through its “Snowdonia for Science” challenge) and corporate partnerships.