LOS ANGELES, Calif., October, 14, 2020 – The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) announced today the program for its prestigious 27th Annual Scientific Retreat taking place October 20-23, 2020, which will be presented for the first time in a virtual format to a vast worldwide audience.
This year’s program will cover the latest discoveries in prostate cancer research:
- Cancer biology, immunology, and translational medicine;
- Research updates on PCF’s many endeavors against COVID-19;
- Late-breaking clinical data for prostate cancer patients;
- Racial disparities in prostate cancer;
- Women in science and medicine;
- Practice-changing clinical advances; and
- Precision medicine.
Many of the world’s leading researchers in prostate cancer will participate in scientific sessions, special lectures, and debates, and PCF founder, Michael Milken, will present the keynote address.
“Prostate cancer research did not stop during COVID and neither has the PCF Research Enterprise. Our annual Scientific Retreat is a unique time for our scientific community to share diverse unpublished basic, translational, and cutting-edge clinical data. These data propel our field forward for patients,” said Jonathan W. Simons, MD, President and CEO, PCF. “This year we are enlivened to present all this progress in a virtual setting to more than 1,700 attendees – a record attendance. The Retreat talks include groundbreaking discoveries from the best minds in prostate cancer research and medicine to a worldwide audience. The virtual meeting format will give participants the opportunity to interact with presenters and researchers from all over the world. PCF hopes to create an experience that is intellectually impactful and as interactive as possible and safe as possible.”
Highlights from the 27th PCF Scientific Retreat include:
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
- PCF Women in Science Forum – This year’s theme is inclusion and diversity and how the field can improve representation of women and people of color in cancer research leadership. For the third year in a row, the program includes a high school Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) segment, this year with girls from Dominguez High School, and a special musical performance from student Xochilt Marquez.
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
- PCF Young Investigator (YI) Forum – Every year for more than a decade, PCF has gathered its class of YIs for a day of networking, mentoring, knowledge exchange, and problem solving. Highlights this year include perspectives and advice about maintaining a research lab during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new mentoring initiative, and the path from junior investigator to a faculty position.
Thursday, October 22, 2020
- Scientific Sessions – Topics focus on PCF’s various research endeavors against COVID-19 and latest findings about how prostate cancer DNA may be used as a biomarker.
- Special Lectures – Topics focus on prostate cancer biology, emerging precision medicines, early phases of cancer research and drug development, novel biomarkers that can help predict outcomes, pan-cancer research including targeting MYC, the ‘emperor of oncoproteins,’ and current challenges in treatment of advanced disease.
- Keynote Address by Michael Milken
- Debate – Prostate cancer biomarkers are measurements that tell us about the aggressiveness of cancer and risk of progression, informing choices about next steps – for example, active surveillance versus immediate definitive treatment. This debate will discuss a key issue in prostate cancer care – whether there is currently enough evidence to recommend widespread use of certain genomic classifier tests in prostate cancer.
Friday, October 23, 2020
- Panel Discussion – The discussion will focus on healthcare disparities including access to care, socioeconomic status, environmental exposures, and biology, and solutions to improve healthcare access and outcomes.
- Late-Breaking Clinical Data – Data to be presented include results from a Phase 3 trial evaluating a new precision medicine called ipataserib in men with advanced prostate cancer.
- Scientific Sessions – Topics focus on how the microbiome impacts cancer, immunotherapy including prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA)-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) CAR T, and development of a first-in-class neo-antigen vaccine, predictive risk tests for men of African descent, and antibody drug conjugates.
- Special Lectures – Among special lectures will be 1) State of the Science 2020; and 2) PCF’s partnership with Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to speed the development of treatments and cures for prostate cancer among veterans.
A Virtual Poster Session will be available to registered participants beginning on October 20, 2020. Visit https://www.pcf.org/scientific-retreat/27th-annual/ for the full program.
Media may register at https://www.pcf.org/2020retreat/
Connect with PCF at www.pcf.org, on Facebook (facebook.com/pcf.org), Instagram (@prostatecancerfoundation), or Twitter (@pcfnews).
About the Prostate Cancer Foundation
The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) is the world’s leading philanthropic organization dedicated to funding life-saving prostate cancer research. Founded in 1993 by Mike Milken, PCF has raised more than $830 million in support of cutting-edge research by more than 2,200 research projects at 220 leading cancer centers in 22 countries around the world. Thanks in part to PCF’s commitment to ending death and suffering from prostate cancer, the death rate is down by 52% and countless more men are alive today as a result. The Prostate Cancer Foundation research now impacts more than 70 forms of human cancer by focusing on immunotherapy, the microbiome, and food as medicine. Learn more at www.pcf.org.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Kathy Vincent for the Prostate Cancer Foundation
(310) 403-8951
[email protected]