ATHENS, Ga. — University of Georgia researchers have found a potential treatment for prostate cancer through “mouse models of the disease.”

The study co-author Somanath Shenoy, Ph.D., looks forward to the study after years of research.

“We had to start from scratch in order to find the importance of that molecule before you even start thinking of targeting it,” said Shenoy. “It takes years of work until you reach into a conclusion that ‘yes, this can be targeted for therapy, and we have a drug. And we can improve its efficiency by a certain matter called nanotechnology.”

Dr. Brian Cummings, who is an associate professor at UGA along with Shenoy, is responsible for the nanotechnology aspect of it all that has made enormous strides in the past eight years.

Although there is still a ways to go with this treatment for prostate cancer, it has the potential to affect the lives of many…including one UGA student, Patricia Duffy, who’s grandmother passed away from a rare form of prostate cancer.

Researchers started the project in 2008, so this project has been in the works for eight years. The applied treatment subdued the activity of a protein known as PAK-1, which adds to the development of “highly invasive protein cells.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers among men in the U.S., so this cutting-edge research is a big step forward for medicine.

By Kaitlin Long