Prescribing personalized lifestyle interventions to improve prostate cancer treatments

In recent years, research has shown that our lifestyle choices, especially our diet and exercise habits, can impact cancer development and progression. This is particularly true for prostate cancer, where researchers are finding that a sedentary lifestyle and poor diet can make the cancer more aggressive.

While the exact reasons for this are not yet clear, a new team of Canadian researchers, funded by the Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network, is looking for answers in an unexpected place: our guts.

Drs. Vincent Fradet (CHU de Québec - Université Laval) and David P. Labbé (Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre - McGill University) lead the research team, which includes experts from Ontario and British Columbia. They explain, “Our gut microbiome, which is the collection of microorganisms living in our digestive system, is increasingly recognized as a key link between lifestyle factors and health. We believe it also affects prostate cancer progression and response to treatment.”

To determine if this is the case, the team will study the genetic characteristics of prostate cancer in patients who have provided information about their lifestyle, including diet, exercise and body measurements. They will also examine the composition of the patients' gut microbiota and their complete medical history to see if there is a connection between a patient's genetics, lifestyle, gut microbiome, and their cancer outcomes.

By doing this, the team hopes to show how lifestyle impacts cancer progression, treatment response, and the likelihood of the cancer returning.

“We hope this new knowledge will help us create lifestyle recommendations that can prevent or slow down cancer progression, enhance treatment effectiveness, or stop the cancer from coming back,” say Drs. Fradet and Labbé. “We believe that in the future, lifestyle changes will be a crucial part of personalized cancer treatment plans to achieve the best possible outcomes and improve the quality of life for cancer patients. This research is the first step toward that goal.” 

In addition to helping solve this research question, the genetic and clinical data collected for this project will also be a part of the Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network’s Gold Cohort, which seeks to be Canada’s largest and most complete cancer case resource. This means that future researchers will also be able to use these data to answer their scientific questions, accelerating the implementation of precision medicine for cancer in Canada and around the world.