Nearly of 300 of the world’s leading researchers focused on the problem of prostate cancer will begin a three-day meeting today to discuss the latest scientific data and breakthroughs in prostate cancer. The meeting, held in Incline Village at Lake Tahoe in Nevada, is the 16th Scientific Retreat sponsored by the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF).
This year, it is projected that prostate cancer will take the lives of 27,000 U.S. men while 192,000 new cases are diagnosed. While the death rate from prostate cancer has been reduced by nearly 40 percent from what was once projected, the number of new cases diagnosed each year continues to rise. By 2015, the annual number of new cases may grow to 300,000.
“This meeting takes on additional urgency as it has been more than two years since there has been a government-sponsored meeting of this kind,” said Dr. Howard Soule, executive vice president and chief scientist for the PCF. “This annual meeting is a catalyst for scientific exchange and has helped accelerate scientific discovery for prostate cancer during the past decade. Some of the most promising developments on the field have come out of this meeting and the work of PCF-funded scientists.”
Scientists who are funded by the PCF are required to share updates on their project and share data at the PCF’s annual scientific retreat. This year’s meeting will include presentations on the progress of several new medications, therapies and biomarkers that hold promise for patients. A total of 81 scientific presentations on new research on treatment and prevention of early and advanced prostate cancers from 98 cancer research centers will be featured. The new data to be discussed originate from research programs in nine countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Since its founding, the PCF has raised more than $370 million to fund prostate cancer research that otherwise would have been left unfunded.
"An outcome of this international conference for accelerating better treatment for prostate cancer will be a new ‘game-changing research projects’ blueprint,” says Dr. Jonathan W. Simons, president and CEO of the PCF. “The PCF will be rapidly presenting the blueprint to our funding partners in prostate cancer research at the NIH, National Cancer Institute, Department of Defense, and leaders in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. We want to remember this meeting as changing the course of prostate cancer research history for patients.”
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