The Movember Foundation Funds Prostate Cancer Breakthrough

Statement from the primary funder, the Movember Foundation, in response to the research paper - Tumour genomic and microenvironmental heterogeneity for integrated prediction of 5-year biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer: a retrospective cohort study - published in Lancet Oncology on October 13 2014

Statement author: Paul Villanti, Executive Director of Programs, the Movember Foundation 

The development of a new genetic "signature" to identify prostate cancer patients who are at high risk of their cancer recurring after surgery or radiotherapy is a significant development and one that is designed to positively impact the treatment for many men around the world.

As a strategic funder of men’s health programs, our prostate cancer goal is for men living with the disease to have the treatment and care needed to be physically and mentally well. This piece of work is a significant step in helping to achieve our goals in this space.

Current methods for identifying the risk of prostate cancer recurrence using pre-treatment biopsies - are inadequate. New and improved tests are urgently needed to better predict which patients are likely to relapse after their primary therapy. These men can then be offered a more tailored and intensified treatment plan, ensuring a higher chance of survival. The ability to build more personalized medicine plans using the personal genetics of each man will also ensure that fewer people undergo unnecessary treatments that can have serious side effects.

The Movember Foundation believes that building powerful collaborative teams from around the world represents one of the most significant opportunities to reduce the number of deaths and improve quality of life for men living with and beyond prostate cancer. This research project is a great example of international collaboration, involving researchers and institutions from not only Canada, but from around the world.

The Canadian researchers will work with other countries to validate the test over the next two to three years in larger and more diverse groups of patients to ensure that it will successfully work in hospitals worldwide. If validated, this will lead to a new test for prostate cancer that will inform doctors quickly which patients are most likely to need only a local treatment (such as surgery or radiation therapy) versus those patients that will require additional systemic treatments such as hormone therapy, chemotherapy or novel molecular therapies.

This research proves the considerable impact that Movember funds are having, the results of which are benefitting hundreds of thousands of men and their families around the world. The Movember Foundation would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported the cause to date and ask that they once again get behind the cause and make a donation in order that the Foundation is able to continue to fund important work, such as this piece of transformative research, that will have an ever-lasting impact on the face of men’s health.

To donate, visit Movember.com.

For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Jill Kenney

Fresh PR

jill@getfreshpr.com

778 837 1122