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UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE RECEIVES $20 MILLION FOR PROSTATE CANCER RESEARCH
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Sept. 8 - The University of Virginia School of Medicine has received $20 million for prostate cancer research from the estate of the late Paul Mellon. This is the largest gift in the medical school's history and the fourth largest for the University.
"This gift will help fuel an all-out assault on prostate cancer," said Dr. Robert M. Carey, dean of the U.Va. School of Medicine. "We are deeply grateful for Mr. Mellon's generosity and inspired by his commitment to eradicate the most frequently occurring cancer in men."
Mellon's generosity was motivated by his gratitude for the care he received from Dr. Jay Gillenwater, a U.Va. professor and former chairman of the urology department, as well as by the strength of the prostate cancer program, according to the executors of the estate. The gift will be used to establish the Mellon Prostate Cancer Research Institute, which will be co-directed by Dr. William Steers, chairman of the Department of Urology at the University, and microbiologist Michael Weber, director of the U.Va. Cancer Center.
Prostate cancer accounts for one of every three cancers among American men, according to the National Cancer Institute. Although early detection and improved treatments have prompted a significant decline in the death rate from this disease, little is understood about the cause of prostate cancer.
The goal of the Mellon Institute will be to understand how and why the disease strikes some men and not others, to determine who is likely to have cancers that need aggressive treatment, and to discover therapies to prevent the onset or progression of the disease. As part of the institute, a functional genomics program will be created to identify the genes involved in prostate cancer and to determine their function and relationship to clinical outcomes. Recruitment of four new researchers to complement ongoing research efforts (see attached backgrounder) will begin immediately, Carey said.
"The University has been the beneficiary of Mr. Mellon's thoughtful philanthropy on a number of occasions," said University President John T. Casteen III. "This gift to the School of Medicine shows again his personal devotion to contributing to the common good. His generosity will help to assure that cutting-edge research at the University will push ahead a possible cure for prostate cancer."
Mellon was widely known and admired in the worlds of philanthropy, art, environmental protection and education. He was the son of Andrew W. Mellon (1855-1937), the financier, longtime Secretary of the Treasury and art collector, whose renowned collection formed the nucleus of the National Gallery in Washington. The Mellons' total contributions to museums and other causes, which include the restoration of Monticello, has been estimated at nearly a billion dollars. Paul Mellon died in 1999.
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September 8, 2000
BACKGROUNDER
PROSTATE CANCER RESEARCH AT UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
-- Researchers developed a blood test to find residual prostate cancer after surgery. The test is not only more accurate, but it may also be quicker, less painful and less costly than the current practice of removing and examining tissue samples. Results of a pilot study using the new procedure were published in the May 1999 issue of the Journal of Urology. Researchers are now considering the test for other organs.
Contact: Dr. Dan Theodorescu, associate professor of urology and the Paul Mellon chair of urologic oncology, (804) 924-0042
-- A grant of $4.2 million from NIH was awarded to microbiologist Michael Weber to study how prostate cancer progresses from a localized, slow-growing tumor to one that develops rapidly.
Contact: Michael Weber, director of the Cancer Center, (804) 924-5022
-- Biologist Leland Chung is leading a team of researchers looking for a vaccine for prostate cancer. The work focuses on signal transduction, the process by which cells communicate with their environment. The team is pursuing ways to prevent messages that cause normal cells to divide uncontrollably from getting through.
In addition, his research team has developed gene therapy for prostate cancer that holds promise for preventing the spread, or even providing the cure, for the disease.
Contact: Leland Chung, professor of urology and cell biology, (804) 243-6649
-- Scientists showed that arachidonic acid, a fatty acid found in meat, dairy fat and egg yolks, but not in plant products, is a powerful stimulus for prostate cancer growth in the test tube. The team, led by Dr. Charles E. Myers, will now try to find a drug to counteract this effect and bring it to clinical trial.
Contact: Dr. Charles E. Myers, professor of urology and medical oncology, (804) 982-4190
-- A team led by Jin-Tang Dong has identified two genes whose deletions are associated with the aggressive behavior of prostate cancer. According to Dong, comprehensive detection of genetic deletions would better define the nature and behavior of a cancer, and would be useful in distinguishing aggressive prostate cancers from those that are benign. Contact: Jin-Tang Dong, assistant professor of pathology, (804) 924-9011
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