New prostate cancer research findings

To be presented at Prostate Cancer Foundation Scientific Retreat

WHAT: The 2007 Prostate Cancer Foundation Scientific Retreat will feature new studies by the world’s leading researchers in prostate cancer. Presentations include discoveries expected to lead to new diagnostics and treatments, and the potential to help men avoid developing prostate cancer.

SELECTED PANELS INCLUDE:

• Lifestyle Navigation: Researchers will share new research on how eating common foods such as tomatoes and fish, maintaining a healthy weight, and avoiding meats cooked at high temperatures may help prevent prostate cancer, and help men live healthier and longer after diagnosis. More widespread studies, in combination with newer technologies in gene research, are substantiating some long-held hypotheses
  (Embargoed until 1:00pm EDT Saturday, October 13th)

• Epigenetics: Researchers have discovered new small molecules that may prevent prostate cancer cells from turning off normal genes in a process that transforms normal cells into cancer cells. This significant discovery in the field of epigenetics has immediate implications in the development of new diagnostic tests and cancer medications.
  (Embargoed until 11:15pm EDT Thursday, October 11th)

• Intracrine androgens: Cancer researchers have long worked to understand why some prostate cancers recur after the use of therapies designed to stop the production of testosterone and other androgens that fuel cancer cell growth. New research has now detected that androgen-synthesizing proteins are present within cancer cells, which suggests that cancer cells may develop the capacity to produce their own androgens. The presence of these proteins may explain why some prostate cancers become resistant to these widely-used therapies, and offers new directions for research into treatments to block the development of these androgens in cancer cells.
  (Embargoed until 6:00pm EDT October 11th)

WHO: The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) is the world's largest philanthropic source of support for prostate cancer research. Founded in 1993, the PCF has raised more than $300 million and provided funding for prostate cancer research to more than 1,400 researchers at 100 institutions worldwide. The PCF has a simple, yet urgent goal: to find better treatments and a cure for recurrent prostate cancer. For more information, visit www.prostatecancerfoundation.org.

WHEN: October 11-13, 2007, Lake Tahoe, CA