WASHINGTON, D.C., October 5, 2017 – The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) today announced awards totaling $7.515 million to fund new 2017 PCF Challenge Awards supporting international, cross-disciplinary teams of investigators conducting pioneering research into critical, unmet medical needs in areas that have the highest potential for impacting and extending lives of men with advanced prostate cancer. This year’s awards include innovative research projects – such as testing several novel radiation-emitting prostate cancer-targeting treatments in advanced prostate cancer and studying prostate cancer from U.S. veterans to better understand the biology of the disease to answer important questions about treatment for lethal prostate cancer. The announcement was made at the 24th Annual PCF Scientific Retreat.
“We are proud and excited to fund these eight teams who will be conducting life-saving research for patients with prostate cancer,” said Jonathan W. Simons, MD, president and chief executive officer, PCF. “The research conducted by these teams will change the face of how we view the treatment landscape of prostate cancer and have the potential to result in cures even for men with very advanced disease who previously had no further treatment options available.”
As part of PCF’s commitment to accelerating research and innovation in prostate cancer, Challenge Award teams are required to include at least three investigators, one of whom must be a young investigator, defined as researchers within six years of completing research or medical training programs. The awarded teams were selected from a pool of 92 international applications following a rigorous peer review process that assessed each project’s scientific merit and potential impact for patients. These eight teams will join six previously announced 2017 Challenge Award teams in the PCF research portfolio that were funded in partnership with the Movember Foundation.
Optimization of Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen-Targeted Radiation ($1 million); this team led by Scott Tagawa, MD, Neil Bander, MD, and Shankar Vallabhajosula, PhD (all of Weill Cornell Medicine) will conduct clinical trials to test the efficacy of several highly promising new PSMA-targeted radiation-emitting treatments in advanced prostate cancer. This team includes researchers from Tulane University, Harvard: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital.
The full press release including additional award recipients may be found on the Prostate Cancer Foundation website here: https://www.pcf.org/news/prostate-cancer-foundation-announces-2017-pcf-c...
