Awards Are Named in Honor of Late Massachusetts Judge A. David Mazzone

SANTA MONICA, CA/August 2, 2011—The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) today announced that it has funded the first two A. David Mazzone-PCF Challenge Awards for accelerating scientific discovery and new treatments for prostate cancer patients. These two awards represent an initial $2 million investment over two years. The total allocation for Judge A. Mazzone-PCF Challenge Awards is $5 million, providing opportunities for additional research awards over a five-year period.

PCF Challenge Awards are designed to encourage cross-disciplinary teams of investigators in strategic areas of prostate cancer research and support highly-innovative research with potential near-term patient benefit. These awards are given to projects not yet funded by any government or foundation program.
These awards were made possible by the disbursement of $5 million of unclaimed settlement funds for a class-action lawsuit in the state of Massachusetts. As requested by the state, these awards are named after the late Judge A. David Mazzone, a famous Massachusetts litigator who was responsible for suits resulting in the clean-up of the Boston Harbor. Mazzone passed away from prostate cancer in 2004.       

“The A. David Mazzone awards, in addition to the eight other 2011 Challenge Awards we will soon be announcing, represent important programs in an excellent, patient-centric PCF-funded research portfolio,” reports Howard Soule, PhD, executive vice president and chief science officer for PCF. “With reductions in federal funding for prostate cancer research, it’s imperative for PCF to seek the most promising research ideas and fund them with the goal of changing clinical practice and improving outcomes for patients with advanced prostate cancer. Both the Prostate Cancer Foundation and patients will look forward to the results of these innovative research projects and to the promise of additional awards over the next five-years.”

The 2011 A. David Mazzone-PCF Challenge Awards

Dr. Glenn Liu, MD - UW Carbone Cancer Center

Imaging Biomarkers of Treatment Response Using NaF PET/CT Imaging: a Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium (PCCTC) Effort

Co-investigators: Michael Morris, MD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; William Dahut, MD, National Cancer Institute; Steven Larson, MD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Peter Choyke, MD, National Cancer Institute; Robert Jeraj, PhD, UW Carbone Cancer Center

As prostate cancer advances and spreads, it homes in on the bones. Monitoring the establishment and spread of cancerous tumors in the bone poses a major challenge. It is also crucial for the evaluation of anti-cancer therapies in patients for tracking both individual lesions and total disease progression in the bone. Dr. Liu, with his team of notable experts in prostate cancer drug development, nuclear medicine and quantitative molecular imaging, is evaluating a novel tool for tracking the spread of prostate cancer and treatment response using 18F-Sodium fluoride (NaF), which is highly specific for cancerous bone lesions. Imaging NaF in the bone with periodic PET/CT scans will help study both the spread of prostate cancer to the bone and the effectiveness of medications that target prostate cancer bone metastases. Dr. Liu and his team will also evaluate different Imaging Biomarkers of Clinical Response (IBCR) that can confidently report the effectiveness of treatment and select the strongest biomarker demonstrating the highest detection rate.

Potential patient benefit: The work of Dr. Liu and his team has the potential to deliver greater confidence to patients and their physicians through enhanced diagnostic and treatment response tools.

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William G. Nelson, MD, PhD - Johns Hopkins Medicine

Induction of Synthetic Lethality with Epigenetic therapy (ISLET) for Systemic Treatment of Prostate Cancer

Co-investigators: Srinivasan Yegnasubramanian, MD, PhD, Johns Hopkins Medicine; Jun O. Liu, PhD, Johns Hopkins Medicine; Stephen B. Baylin, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine; Michael A. Carducci, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine; Martin J. Aryee, PhD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

One of the causes for the initiation of cancer is the switching off or complete shutdown of certain critical genes (gene silencing) that should remain active. Tumor cells also use this mechanism as the cancer spreads and becomes resistant to treatment. Cancer cells adapt to currently available drugs by switching off the targets of these medications and rendering them ineffective. Dr. Nelson and his team of scientists plan to discover innovative new medicines that will turn switched-off genes back on so that currently available medications can effect tumor regression. The reversal of gene-silencing by new medications will have a two-pronged effect; one, switching on the ‘good’ genes that cancer switches ‘off’ and two, switching on the ‘bad’ genes so that currently available medications can more effectively identify and target them.

Potential patient benefit: New medications discovered by Dr. Nelson’s team could attack tumors in new ways. Combined with currently available treatments, these new therapies for metastatic prostate cancer have the potential to improve patient outcomes.

About the Prostate Cancer Foundation

The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) is the world’s leading philanthropic organization funding and accelerating research. Founded in 1993, PCF has raised more than $475 million and provided funding to over 1,600 research projects at nearly 200 institutions in 15 countries around the world. PCF advocates for greater awareness of prostate cancer and more efficient investment of governmental research funds supporting transformational cancer research. Our efforts have helped produce a 20-fold increase in government funding for prostate cancer. More information about PCF can be found at pcf.org.