Prof. Norman Maitland describes his research on prostate cancer development and treatment. Life has changed a lot over the past four decades, but for most cancer research centers, studies carried out on cell lines first obtained 40 years ago are commonplace. Things are different in Prof. Maitland's laboratory at the University of York, where the research is carried out on tumor samples obtained regularly in cooperation with local hospitals. Using live-cell imaging techniques the team has been able to study the effects of cancer treatment drugs on individual cancer-like cells in real time.