Professor Vincent Gnanapragasam

I am the first Professor of Urology (personal chair) in the University of Cambridge & an Honorary Consultant Urologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, my clinical practice is in precision diagnostics & personalised management of early prostate cancer.  

My academic career has covered the full spectrum of basic science, translational, clinical & epidemiological disciplines. I have led basic science groups and in recent year translational & clinical trials teams. My research has transformed the management of prostate cancer through practice changing innovations in classification (Cambridge Prognostic Groups) & individualised prognostic tools (Predict Prostate). These have now been adopted by NICE & other International Guidelines to drive better standardisation of patient care. I have pioneered evidence-based management in active surveillance for early cancer. Through this work I have introduced the first risk-stratified surveillance practice in the UK (STRATCANS) now adopted by national charities & international guidelines. 

In the University of Cambridge, I established the Cambridge Prostate Cancer Research & Clinical Trials (CPRACT) office which has to date recruited >1800 patients to various investigator led, NIHR & commercial urology trials. As director of CPRACT I have incepted, led & completed numerous investigators led multicentre clinical trials including; Predict Prostate RCT, PRIM & Target biomarker studies & the NIHRi4i funded CamPROBE study (based on my invention of a device to enable safer prostate biopsies). The CamPROBE has been successfully launched & commercially licensed for dissemination offering a low-cost solution for safer diagnostic prostate biopsies. I have also developed novel clinical trials concept exploring therapeutic intervention to abrogate early disease progression in prostate cancer (TAPS01 & TAPS02). 

I am Chief Investigator of the DIAMOND study which hold over 2000 bio-samples, tissue & annotated clinical data for biomarker discovery in urological diseases (to date used in over 75 research studies). I have established & published numerous collaborations with STEM & AI/Machine learning scientists on health technology innovations for cancer detection & disease modelling across different platforms. My achievements have led to invitations to join many international research consortiums over the years. 

My research has attracted many millions of pounds in grant funding in personal fellowships & as chief and co-investigator. I have to date published over 250 papers. I have held many leadership roles internationally, nationally, regionally & in the University. I hold patents & have won numerous prizes including the CE Alken prize, Urological Research Society Medal, Royal College of Surgeons Hunterian Professorship, NHS Clinical Excellence Awards & a Business award for Innovation. In the University of Cambridge, I am a recipient of the  Vice Chancellors Award for Research Impact. 

Project/study information 

I undertake research focused on understanding the natural clinical history of early prostate cancer using untreated disease under surveillance as a model. This knowledge is critical to inform the search for therapeutic interventions to modify or abrogate disease progression to aggressive or metastatic states.   

Recruitment of PhD / Post doctoral students 

The Department of Surgery offers three different research focussed degrees – the MPhil & MChir at Masters Level & beyond that, the PhD. 

If you have an idea for a Masters or PhD project & are looking for a supervisor or would like to explore joining my group as a student, please contact me by email, copying in our postgraduate student team: clusterpg@medschl.cam.ac.uk.  

If I have a vacancy for a post-doctoral position, it will be advertised on https://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/.