University Lecturer in Uro-oncology and Consultant Urologist
Biography/Research interests
Vincent Gnanapragasam graduated from Newcastle University. Following basic surgical training, he was one of the first trainees to be funded through a Cancer Research UK PhD for Clinicians and one of the first recipients of a CRUK Clinician Scientist Fellowship given to a surgeon. His early laboratory work led to novel discoveries into the role of endogenous signalling regulators (SEF/SPRED) in prostate cancer development and mechanistic insights into treatment resistance from growth factor inhibitors.
He is currently a University Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and Honorary Consultant Urologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. Vincent’s research covers the full spectrum of basic science, translational, clinical and epidemiological disciplines in prostate cancer. He has developed novel, more accurate, prognostic prediction models for both group stratified cohorts Cambridge Prognostic Groups and for individualised prediction Predict Prostate and pioneered risk stratified pathways for active surveillance follow up. These models have been shown to outperform current guideline endorsed risk models and have been adopted into local and regional guidelines Predict prostate is the only decision aid endorsed by the UK NICE National Guidelines on prostate cancer.
He is Chief Investigator of the DIAMOND prostate cancer and urological biobank which hold over 3000 bio-samples, tissue and annotated clinical data. He is CI of the TAPS01 study, NIHRi4i funded CAMPROBE study (based on his invention of a new simple device for infection free prostate biopsies), national Predict Prostate patient RCT and multi-centre PRIM biomarker-imaging cancer detection study. His work has been cited in prostate cancer guidelines by NICE and the European Association of Urology. To further interdisciplinary research in prostate cancer he established the Translational Prostate Cancer Group (TPCG) in Cambridge with colleagues from urology, oncology, radiology, pathology and basic science. The TPCG have so far collaborated on >50 peer reviewed papers with a combined grant income of >£3M. He has also established links with STEM scientists to develop biosensors for cancer detection across different platforms.
He is a member of the UK ICGC prostate group and on the clinical steering committee of the International Pan Prostate Cancer Collaborative. He is a founder member of the International GAP3 Active Surveillance consortium. To date he has raised over £4M in personal research funding covering basic, translational and clinical trials research, over £5M as co-investigator and published over 130 peer reviewed papers. He is also joint applicant on research collaboratives that have secured over £70M in funding.
His current clinical practice is in precision prostate cancer diagnostics and personalised medicine. He has introduced practice changing innovations including risk-based stratification and tailored surveillance which has standardised patient care and significantly reduced over-treatment. More recently, with colleagues from the TPCG, he has established a platform for Integrated Genomics and Clinical Profiling to explore the potential for targeted adjuvant therapies to improve primary cure rates in poor prognosis prostate cancer.
In the University of Cambridge, he leads the University Academic Urology Group and established the Cambridge Urology Translational Research and Clinical Trials office which has recruited>1600 patients to various NIHR and portfolio urology trials. He is also directorate lead for urology research. He holds patents and has won numerous prizes for research, including the CE Alken prize, Urological Research Society Medial, Hunterian Professorship and is a recipient of a University of Cambridge Vice Chancellors Award for Research Impact. He is also Visiting Professor at Anglia Ruskin University.
Key impact papers:
Gnanapragasam VJ, Leonard K, Sut M, Ilie C, Ord J, Roux J, Hart Prieto MC, Warren A, Tamer P. Multicentre clinical evaluation of the safety and performance of a simple transperineal access system for prostate biopsies of suspected prostate cancer: The CAMbridge PROstate Biopsy DevicE (CamPROBE) study. J Clin Urol. 2020 June 12 [Epub ahead of print]
Thurtle D, Bratt Ola, Stattin P, Pharoah P, Gnanapragasam VJ. Comparative performance and external validation of the multivariable PREDICT Prostate tool for non-metastatic prostate cancer: A study in 69,206 men from Prostate Cancer data Base Sweden (PCBaSe). BMC Med. 2020 Jun 16;18(1):139.
Parry MG, Cowling TE, Sujenthiran A, Nossiter J, Berry B, Cathcart P, Aggarwal A, Payne H, van der Meulen J, Clarke NW, Gnanapragasam VJ. Risk stratification for prostate cancer management: value of the Cambridge Prognostic Group classification for assessing treatment allocation. BMC Med. 2020 May 28;18(1):114.
Kim L, Boxall N, George A, Burling K, Acher P, Aning J, McCracken S, Page T, Gnanapragasam VJ. Clinical utility and cost modelling of the phi test to triage referrals into image-based diagnostic services for suspected prostate cancer: the PRIM (Phi to RefIne Mri) study. BMC Med. 2020 Apr 17;18(1):95.
Wajs E, Rughoobur G, Burling K, George A, Flewitt A, Gnanapragasam V. A novel split mode TFBAR devices for quantitative measurements of prostate specific antigen in a small sample of whole blood. Nanoscale. 2020 May 7;12(17):9647-9652. Epub 2020 Apr 22.
Neal DE, Metcalfe C, Donovan JL, Lane JA, Davis M, Young GJ, Dutton SJ, Walsh EI, Martin RM, Peters TJ, Turner EL, Mason M, Bryant R, Bollina P, Catto J, Doherty A, Gillatt D, Gnanapragasam V, Holding P, Hughes O, Kockelbergh R, Kynaston H, Oxley J, Paul A, Paez E, Rosario DJ, Rowe E, Staffurth J, Altman DG, Hamdy FC; ProtecT Study Group. Ten-year Mortality, Disease Progression, and Treatment-related Side Effects in Men with Localised Prostate Cancer from the ProtecT Randomised Controlled Trial According to Treatment Received. Eur Urol. 2020 Mar;77(3):320-330. Epub 2019 Nov 24.
Thurtle DR, Jenkins VL, Pharoah PD, Gnanapragasam VJ. Understanding of prognosis in non-metastatic prostate cancer: A randomised comparative study 2 of clinician estimates measured against the PREDICT prostate prognostic model Br J Cancer. 2019 Oct;121(8):715-718.
Thurtle DR, Greenberg DC, Lee LS, Huang HH, Pharoah PD, Gnanapragasam VJ. Individual prognosis at diagnosis in non-metastatic prostate cancer: Development and external validation of the PREDICT Prostate multivariable model. PLoS Med. 2019 Mar 12;16(3):e1002758. eCollection 2019 Mar.
Wedge DC et al. Sequencing of prostate cancers identifies new cancer genes, routes of progression and drug targets. Nat Genet. 2018 May;50(5):682-692. Epub 2018 Apr 16.
Gnanapragasam VJ, Bratt O, Muir K, Lee LS, Huang HH, Stattin P, Lophatananon A. The Cambridge Prognostic Groups for improved prediction of disease mortality at diagnosis in primary non-metastatic prostate cancer: a validation study. BMC Med. 2018 Feb 28;16(1):31.
Hori S, Wadhwa K, Pisupati V, Zecchini V, Ramos-Montoya A, Warren AY, Neal DE, Gnanapragasam VJ. Loss of hSef promotes metastasis through upregulation of EMT in prostate cancer. Int J Cancer. 2017 Apr 15;140(8):1881-1887.Epub 2017 Jan 30.
VJ Gnanapragasam, A Lophatananon, KA Wright, KR Muir, A Gavin, DC Greenberg. Improving Clinical Risk Stratification at Diagnosis in Primary Prostate Cancer: A Prognostic Modelling Study. PLoS Med. 2016 Aug 2;13(8):e1002063. eCollection 2016 Aug.
Gundem et al. The evolutionary history of lethal metastatic prostate cancer. ICGC Prostate Group, Nature. 2015 Apr 16;520(7547):353-357.
Cooper CS et al. ICGC Prostate Group. Analysis of the genetic phylogeny of multifocal prostate cancer identifies multiple independent clonal expansions in neoplastic and morphologically normal prostate tissue. Nat Genet. 2015 Apr;47(4):367-372. Epub 2015 Mar 2.
