The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) is a 23-year-old organization that started with the efforts of one patient and became the leading philanthropic organization in the world focused on funding and accelerating research on prostate cancer. After battling with prostate cancer and visiting several specialists before finding a treatment, Michael Milken decided to take action against the disease.
Formerly known as the CaP CURE, the Prostate Cancer Foundation was founded in 1993 with the purpose of increasing funding to research prostate cancer and ultimately find more effective treatments for a disease which is the second most common type of cancer among men in the USA. In addition to helping accelerate research in the field, the Prostate Cancer Foundation became a primary resource for people dealing with prostate cancer and their loved ones.
“PCF has raised nearly $660 million and provided funding to more than 2,000 research programs at nearly 200 cancer centers and universities. The PCF global research enterprise now extends to 19 countries. PCF advocates for greater awareness of prostate cancer and more efficient investment of governmental research funds for transformational cancer research. Its efforts have helped produce a 20-fold increase in government funding for prostate cancer,” explain the foundation.
The Prostate Cancer Foundation has contributed towards several achievements and milestones in the field during the past two decades. “Many important discoveries in the fight against prostate cancer since 1993 resulted from PCF funding or coordination—including the development of new medications, gene therapy approaches and the development of vaccines that may soon work with the body’s immune system to kill prostate cancer cells.”
These efforts made by the organization and numerous other players in the prostate cancer community means the death rates related to prostate cancer in the country has greatly decreased by about 40% from what it was in the 1990s. Under the leadership of the founder chairman Michael Milken, the Prostate Cancer Foundation works relentlessly to fund research for prostate cancer, while the organization is also determined to help men and their loved ones affected by prostate cancer cope with the disease.
The Prostate Cancer Foundation does so by connecting patients, family members, care givers and investigators with each other, as well as providing them with critical updates, the latest developments, best practices and news in the prostate cancer field. However, the organization believes there is much more work to be done, and will continue to work until no more families have to suffer from the death of a loved one to prostate cancer.
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