Top-notch prostate cancer care:

Dr. David Bell leads ‘Project P’ to improve patient outcomes and quality of life

Prostate cancer poses complex problems. It’s the most common male cancer, and even though it can take 10 to 15 years to advance to a fatal stage, it is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in men. Surgical removal of the cancerous prostate is one of the most effective treatments, but can lead to urinary incontinence and/or erectile dysfunction.

 “There are so many factors to weigh in treating prostate cancer,” says Dr. Bell, associate professor in Dalhousie Medical School's Department of Urology and the Maritimes’ leading prostate cancer clinician. “We must consider the man’s age and stage of cancer at the time of diagnosis, his overall health, and how aggressive the tumour may be. Sometimes ‘watchful waiting’ is a better option than surgery.” Physicians must be able to accurately assess the disease and its likely course, and patients need reliable information when faced with treatment decisions.

With support from the Soillse Fund, Dr. Bell has launched ‘Project P’ to shed light on these and other crucial issues. This comprehensive clinical research effort probes four key aspects of prostate cancer: prevention, prognosis, prescription and palliation.

The first step of ‘Project P’ is to build a clinical database. “The database will allow us to analyse patient and disease characteristics, as well as treatment and quality-of-life outcomes, from the mid-1990s into the future,” says Dr. Bell. “We’ll see what works best in various situations, and measure improvements over time.” This will include testing the ability of drugs and nutraceuticals to slow disease progression – and even prevent prostate cancer in men at higher risk for the disease.

Dr. Bell also sees the database as a way to link clinical and basic researchers, particularly since tissue samples are banked for future reference. “If a scientist discovers a molecular marker they think predicts a more aggressive form of the disease, we can test their theory by looking for the marker in tissue samples of patients who had aggressive tumours,” he says by way of example. “This would be a tremendous advance.”