The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) and the Movember Foundation recently announced four new Movember Foundation–PCF Challenge Award teams at some of the world’s leading academic research institutions will receive a total of $3.5 million to support cross-disciplinary pioneering research toward the goal of finding a cure for prostate cancer. Of these funds, $3 million came from the 2017 Movember U.S. Campaign and $503,000 came from the 2017 Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride.
For more than a decade, the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Movember Foundation have partnered to defeat prostate cancer. To date, the Movember Foundation has contributed more than $50 million to the Prostate Cancer Foundation to fund programs to advance top prostate cancer research priorities.
As part of the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s commitment to accelerate 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. Each proposal submitted to the Prostate Cancer Foundation is subjected to a rigorous peer-review process that assesses the scientific merit of the project as well as its potential impact on patients. Of note, three of this year’s winning research projects focus on U.S. veterans and are also designated Prostate Cancer Foundation VALOR Award recipients.
Challenge Awards Recipients
Here are the 2018 Challenge Awards recipients:
- The Impact of DNA Damage Repair Abnormalities in Prostate Cancer: Mark Pomerantz, MD (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute); Philip Kantoff, MD (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)
- Fecal Microbiota Transplant to Enhance Response to PD-1 Inhibition in Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer: Julie Graff, MD (VA Portland Health Care System); Amy Moran, PhD (Oregon Health & Science University); Karen Sfanos, PhD (Johns Hopkins)
- Surrogate Endpoints of Overall Survival in Men With Metastatic Hormone-Sensitive Prostate Cancer: Susan Halabi, PhD (Duke University); Christopher Sweeney, MBBS (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute); Jayne Tierney, PhD (University College London)
- Targeting RNA Splicing in Race-Related Aggressive and Lethal Prostate Cancer: Steven Patierno, PhD; Daniel George, MD; Jennifer Freedman, PhD; Jiaoti Huang, MD, PhD; Amanda Hargrove, PhD; Muthana Al Abo, MD, PhD (Duke University). ■
