The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) mourns the loss of Dr. Felix Feng, a beloved husband and father, leading physician-scientist, and cherished member of the PCF research family, who passed away on December 10, 2024, from cancer. A giant of oncology, Dr. Feng was a trailblazer in personalizing prostate cancer management to save lives. He did so by skillfully collaborating with hundreds of radiation oncologists, computational scientists, molecular biologists, and researchers from many other disciplines. He will be deeply missed, and his contributions will support the work of many future generations.
Dr. Feng’s journey with PCF began with a 3-year Young Investigator Award, which was instrumental in launching his prostate cancer research career. He went on to receive many more PCF awards and was a key member of two PCF-funded Prostate Cancer Dream Teams, which broke ground in identifying targetable pathogenic variants (mutations) to personalize the treatment of patients with advanced prostate cancer. In 2016, Dr. Feng joined the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) where he held numerous leadership roles. He was also a leading member of NRG Oncology, the RTOG Foundation, the National Cancer Institute, and the American Society of Radiation Oncology. In addition, he was a wise and compassionate mentor who helped advance the careers of hundreds of young researchers.
Throughout his career, Dr. Feng showed a prescient understanding of how to harness novel technology to personalize cancer treatment. At UCSF, his laboratory developed the first clinical-grade biomarker panels to predict treatment responses, as well as a novel cell-free DNA biomarker to predict resistance to PARP1 inhibitors. He also helped characterize how several genes contribute to prostate cancer progression, which led to key preclinical studies and clinical trials. In addition, he founded two companies—a cancer therapeutics firm and a start-up that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to predict which patients with localized prostate cancer will develop metastatic disease, and which patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer will benefit from hormone therapy.
Above all, Dr. Feng cared deeply about patients. At his recent lecture at the PCF Scientific Retreat, he appealed to attendees that “every patient involved in clinical trials… is a patient like me.” His courage and resilience have been a beacon to us all. We extend our deepest condolences to Dr. Feng’s wife, Dr. Mary Feng, and their two children.
