ISSUE
43
September 2010
funding world class research The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA) is proud to fund vital Australian prostate cancer research. Thanks to the generous support of Movember, in recent years PCFA has been able to greatly increase this funding. Increased funding means that more world-class Australian investigators are now working toward urgently needed advances in the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. PCFA has a long history of funding world-class Australian prostate cancer research, beginning in 1999 with support to establish the Australian Prostate Cancer BioResource (APCB) along with the Commonwealth Bank and Andrology Australia. The APCB is a national prostate cancer tissue bank, linked with other global tissue banks, which collects samples from Australian men treated for early stage prostate cancer by radical surgery. These samples are used for genetic and other studies to improve tests and treatments for prostate cancer.
In 2005, PCFA, with support from BHP Billiton, undertook a review of all the prostate cancer research currently underway in Australia. The results of this national survey enabled PCFA to establish its structured research grant program in 2007 and to develop a set of research priorities based on a strategic approach to prostate cancer. The PCFA’s research program aims to ensure that the proposals submitted to it are reviewed, assessed and funded in a process which is as scientifically rigorous and as transparent as possible. It works to bridge the funding gap between prostate cancer and other areas of cancer research and to fund only the best grants and investigators in the field, with a significant focus on translational research that will directly benefit the consumer. PCFA’s Research Program has made a significant impact on prostate cancer research in Australia. Since its establishment, PCFA’s Research Committee has approved $17 million of funding for research projects that will ultimately benefit the almost 20,000 Australian men and their families that are impacted by a diagnosis of prostate cancer each year. CONTINUED PAGE 3