UW Carbone Cancer Center researchers honored by foundation for prostate cancer research

Two researchers at the UW Carbone Cancer Center are among 21 who have been named 2010 Young Investigators by the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF).

Joshua Lang and Justine Bruce were awarded three-year grants to continue their research projects on prostate cancer treatments.

Lang, a research fellow, is investigating a prostate cancer vaccine for patients with advanced disease. He will study medications that could activate the body’s immune system to attack tumor cells.

Bruce, an assistant professor at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, will use the grant money to develop additional imaging techniques and new medicines for patients who do not show evidence of metastatic disease but whose PSA continues to increase after hormonal treatment. She is working with a novel experimental agent that inhibits tumor growth and disease progression.

Lang and Bruce will be awarded $225,000 each. That amount will be matched to total $450,000 for each researcher.

“Encouraging talented investigators with impressive early-career accomplishments, like Drs. Lang and Bruce, is crucial to realizing PCF’s goal of accelerating breakthroughs that can potentially end death and suffering from prostate cancer,” says Howard Soule, PCF executive vice president and chief science officer.

Lang and Bruce are among a select group of investigators and research fellows from distinguished academic medical centers including Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Texas to receive the Young Investigators honor.

The UW Carbone Cancer Center is one of the founding members of the Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium with the U.S. Department of Defense. The consortium, funded by PCF, represents the most active prostate cancer clinical research sites in the world.