PR November 14, 2003 - Prostate Cancer Foundation

NEW YORK, November 14, 2003 -- Billed as "a time to reflect on our past and...look to the future," the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) hosted 1,100 people at its New York fundraising dinner Monday night at the Waldorf-Astoria. The star-studded event, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg with a feature performance by Cher and special performances by David Foster and Michael Bublé, raised more than $5 million for prostate cancer research.
Once-in-a-lifetime auction items, such as a day on the set of Oceans 12, golf with Arnold Palmer and lunch with basketball star Shaquille O'Neal, raised funds to develop new therapies to treat, and someday cure, prostate cancer.

During the dinner, Prostate Cancer Foundation CEO Leslie D. Michelson said, "We are making great progress in finding better treatments and a cure for prostate cancer, the most common non-skin cancer in America, striking more than 220,000 new men each year. Many new and effective treatments are now available and the number of prostate cancer drugs in development has increased 50 percent in the past five years."

Earlier, 350 of the top prostate cancer researchers attended the PCF 10th Annual Scientific Retreat. During the retreat, the PCF celebrated the recipients of its 2003 Donald S. Coffey Physician-Scientist Awards, which recognize the important role physician-scientists play in prostate cancer research. The award recipients included:

-- Anthony V. D'Amico, M.D., Ph.D., Chief, Genitourinary Radiation Oncology, Brigham & Women's Hospital
-- Massimo Loda, M.D., Associate Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
-- Joel Nelson, M.D., Frederic N. Schwentker Professor and chairman of the Department of Urology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and co-director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute's Comprehensive Prostate and Urologic Cancer Center
-- Jonathan Simons, M.D., Director, Winship Cancer Institute, Professor of Hematology and Oncology, Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center, Emory University School of Medicine

The Prostate Cancer Foundation (formerly CaP CURE) is dedicated to finding better treatments and a cure for prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in America, striking 220,000 men each year. One new case every 2 1/2 minutes. Since inception in 1993, the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) has become the world's largest philanthropic source of support for prostate cancer research. The PCF has raised more than $200 million and funded more than 1,100 critical research projects in 100 research centers around the world. The PCF invests 78 cents of every dollar raised on medical and scientific research: more than three times the average amount spent by the other major health-care philanthropies. Further information is available at: www.prostatecancerfoundation.org

Media Contacts: Prostate Cancer Foundation, Erika Kirsten Beck, 310.570.4705, ebeck@prostatecancerfoundation.org