Dr Rachel Hurst

Biography

I am a Research Fellow in the Cancer Genetics team, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia.

My research focusses on investigating bacterial infection, microbiota and the role in prostate cancer. We recently identified that five anaerobic bacteria genera are associated with prostate cancer grade and risk of progression (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euo.2022.03.006).

Research is focussed on four main areas:

• investigating bacterial pathogens that may contribute to development of more aggressive cancer

• the mechanisms of action of how the bacteria may contribute to cancer progression, including investigating pathogen vs host interactions associated with cancer. We recently published the Seven Steps of how multiple bacteria may act together to cause cancer and progression (https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.001817).

• investigating potential treatment options to target the anaerobic pathogens with application for use in clinical trials.

• diagnostic and prognostic tests for aggressive prostate cancer, including the Prostate Urine Risk score (https://doi.org/10.3390/life11111172 ; https://doi.org/10.1111/bju.14811) and developing assays to detect the bacterial pathogens linked to cancer (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euo.2022.03.006; https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.001817).