ESSEX University researchers have been awarded a grant of more than £255,800 to test a new treatment which could cure prostate cancer.

The money has been awarded by Prostate Cancer UK as part of the charity's new £2.6 million Research Innovation Awards scheme.

If successful, the treatment, which uses adult stem cells to deliver a cancer killing protein directly to the prostate cancer cells, could revolutionise how men with advanced prostate cancer are treated.

The researchers, led by Dr Ralf Zwacka, will test whether it is possible to use the stem cells as a 'Trojan horse' to smuggle a protein called TRAIL to the prostate cancer cells, causing the cells to die.

Dr Zwacka said: "There are too few treatments for men with advanced prostate cancer and those that do exist unfortunately don’t work for every man.

"The protein TRAIL was first identified in the mid 90s but has yet to show any clinical benefit.

"We think that this is because it is quite an unstable protein, so when it is given by itself as a therapy, it breaks down before it has the chance to reach the cancer and do its job.

"However, we’ve found a possible way to use adult stem cells as a Trojan horse to smuggle this protein to the cancer cells, so that it can destroy the cancer cells before being broken down.

"We’re incredibly grateful for this grant from Prostate Cancer UK and can’t wait to get started."

Dr Iain Frame, Director of Research at Prostate Cancer UK, said: "Through shifting the science over the next decade, we want to transform prostate cancer into a disease that the next generation of men will not fear.

"We’re delighted to be funding our first ever Research Innovation Awards, which has been made possible thanks to the generous donations of our supporters.

"We challenged the research community to think creatively and send us ideas we’d never seen before, that could really change the game for men. We weren’t disappointed.

"Pioneering research like this from Dr Zwacka is going to play a key role in helping us to achieve our ten year goal and we’re looking forward to seeing how this research progresses."