“Yorkshire Cancer Research was one of the first cancer charities to grasp the nettle of treating prostate cancer” – Professor Norman Maitland’s experience

To mark Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, Yorkshire Cancer Research looks back at the work of Professor Norman Maitland FRSB, a pioneering researcher from the University of York who made groundbreaking discoveries in prostate cancer genetics.

As a teenager, Professor Norman Maitland had two main passions in life: science and singing. He pursued both with enthusiasm, blowing a hole in the chemistry lab ceiling during a science experiment at his school and taking his singing so seriously that he contemplated making a career of it.

“I had a choice of being a musician or studying biochemistry. My father steered me towards a life in science and I never looked back.”

After gaining a degree in biochemistry, Professor Maitland decided to do a PhD in Cancer Studies at Birmingham, enticed by a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of a fellowship to work with James Watson, the co-discoverer of the DNA double helix.  Professor Maitland spent two years working in Watson’s laboratory in the USA, becoming one of the first people to study gene therapy. Here, in 1977 he first looked at how adding a healthy gene to a cell with a genetic fault might be able to cure or treat different cancers.

In 1984, he moved to Bristol, becoming part of a multidisciplinary team studying oral cancer. They discovered that a human wart virus found in the cervix, which is also associated with cervical cancer, was responsible for many oral cancers too. Faced with scepticism from academics, Professor Maitland worked with an oral cancer surgeon to publish a series of papers on these findings in the mid-1980s. Today, the findings are used worldwide to decide on oral cancer treatments and the papers remain some of the most highly cited in this field.

Professor Maitland’s work with Yorkshire Cancer Research began in 1991 when he took up the post as Yorkshire Cancer Research Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of York. 

“The position excited me, but because I had fewer qualifications and was much younger than the other candidates, I never thought I’d be the one to get the offer.”

His decision to move to Yorkshire was made easier by the presence in York of a Urological Surgeon whom Norman knew from his years in Bristol.  This would provide access to clinical samples from people with prostate cancer to investigate the causes of prostate cancer with funding from the charity.

Professor Maitland’s first big breakthrough came in 1998 when his team were among the first in the world to show that cancer cells are not all the same within a tumour and can in fact be remarkably different. This discovery paved the way for another breakthrough which found about one in every 1,000 prostate cancer cells is a type of stem cell, and that these ‘cancer stem cells’ are resistant to cancer treatment. 

He explained: “Whilst other cancer cells within a tumour would generally succumb quickly to chemotherapy or radiotherapy, these stem-like cells survived and therefore tumours would start to regrow as soon as treatment ended.”

Encouraged by these discoveries, Yorkshire Cancer Research made a significant £1 million investment in 2005 to build laboratories for his 20-strong research team. 

In 2012, after a decade of meticulously examining the effect of radiotherapy on prostate tumours, Professor Maitland’s team made a vital discovery. The resistance to cancer treatment in stem cells was related to the coiling of their chromosomes. The findings also suggested treatment with anti-inflammatory drugs alongside chemotherapy and radiotherapy may be a way to kill off all the cancer cells in a tumour, including the stem cells. 

Professor Maitland’s team would go on to make other vital contributions to prostate cancer research. This included the development of a test, just before his retirement in 2019, which indicated with increased accuracy what type of prostate cancer a person had. This would help to ensure that men diagnosed with fast-growing prostate cancers could be treated quickly with the best course of treatment. 

Throughout his 28 years leading the York research team, Professor Maitland remained firmly focused on the people of Yorkshire. He spent many evenings touring the region, building relationships with members of Yorkshire Cancer Research local committees, prostate cancer support groups and speaking with the general public about the need for early diagnosis.

Yorkshire Cancer Research is funding a pioneering £4.5 million prostate screening trial, giving thousands of men in Yorkshire the opportunity to be screened. Screening helps find cancer at the earliest possible stage, before symptoms develop and when the cancer is often easier to treat.

The IMProVE clinical trial, led by experts at the University of Sheffield in partnership with Queen Mary University of London, will aim to provide crucial evidence needed to introduce a national screening programme for prostate cancer, so more lives can be saved in Yorkshire, and beyond.

Professor Maitland continued: “There are many stand-out moments in my career, but I will never forget the times when men have told me they got tested after hearing me speak about prostate cancer. Many were diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent successful treatment thanks to it being caught early. Being able to say we have helped save lives is truly wonderful.” 

Since 1925, Yorkshire Cancer Research has been working with pioneering researchers including Professor Norman Maitland to bring a century of breakthroughs, progress and life-saving discoveries to people in Yorkshire, and beyond.