May 6, 2014 — The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) has received over $8.4 million from its partner Movember, the global men’s health charity that gets men to grow and women to support the moustache for the month of November, raising vital funds and awareness for men’s health. PCF will allocate the over $8.4 million to find better treatments and ultimately a cure, by funding first in field research. This generous donation is part of the 2013 Movember U.S. campaign.
“The Movember partnership has been significant in advancing groundbreaking prostate cancer research designed to save and improve lives,” said Jonathan W. Simons, MD, president and CEO of PCF. “Driving awareness of the critical need for accelerated research that truly makes a difference for every patient with advanced prostate cancer is in large part due to the power of the Mo.”
“We are incredibly proud of our Movember community and the money they have raised to help the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) fund game-changing research for men who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer,” said Mark Hedstrom, US country director for Movember. “Every dollar helps, and together, with our community and PCF, we are helping change the face of men’s health.”
To date, Movember has donated nearly $27 million to PCF to support prostate cancer research, funding 15 Movember-PCF Challenge Awards globally. Challenge Awards consist of cross-disciplinary teams of investigators capable of providing unique scientific expertise to the solution of a significant problem in prostate cancer research. The data generated from these Movember-funded projects has positively impacted the daily practice of oncology with groundbreaking treatments for the 16 million men fighting prostate cancer globally.
One such Movember-funded project is the 2013 Movember-PCF Challenge Award at the University of Michigan led by Drs. Arul Chinnaiyan and Shaomeng Wang. Dr. Chinnaiyan and his team will design compounds to a novel cancer target and ultimately will advance these drug candidates to clinical trials in patients with advanced prostate cancer that are resistant to conventional therapies. Targeting this key driver of prostate cancer growth and survival may provide life extension for those individuals without therapeutic alternative.
Another recently funded Challenge Award went to a team of cancer immunologists at the City of Hope National Medical Center, which will fund the development of an entirely unique and innovative combination immunotherapy approach. The strategy will heighten a patient’s natural immune defenses to fight off prostate cancer by combining two stand-alone immunotherapies that target different aspects of the immune system that are comprised by the cancer.
PCF will be announcing the 2014 Movember-PCF Challenge Awards in the next few months.
About the Prostate Cancer Foundation
The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) is the world’s leading philanthropic organization funding and accelerating prostate cancer research. Founded in 1993, PCF has raised more than $615 million and provided funding to more than 2,000 research programs at nearly 200 cancer centers and universities in 19 countries. PCF advocates for greater awareness of prostate cancer and more efficient investment of governmental research funds for transformational cancer research. Its efforts have helped produce a 20-fold increase in government funding for prostate cancer.
About Movember
Movember aims to forever change the face of men’s health through the power of the moustache, by raising vital awareness and funds for men’s health issues to combat prostate and testicular cancer and mental health challenges. Movember programs are focused on awareness and education, living with and beyond cancer, and research to achieve our vision of an everlasting impact on the face of men’s health. Since 2003, 4 million participants have raised over $556 million for the cause, funding more than 770 programs globally, with official Movember campaigns taking place in 21 countries. Movember is fully accredited by the Better Business Bureau, and for the past two years, has been named a Top 100 best NGO by The Global Journal. For more information please visit Movember.com. Movember is a registered 501(c)(3) charity.