ZERO Preserves Federal Funds for Prostate Cancer Research

WASHINGTON, July 8, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- ZERO – The Project to End Prostate Cancer, with the help of advocates across the country, has successfully preserved critical funding for prostate cancer research. Representative Cliff Stearns (R-FL) offered an amendment on the House floor that was unanimously approved to transfer an additional $16 million to the $64 million originally stated for the Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP).

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The PCRP is one of the Department of Defense's Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. It has received $80 million each year since 2005, but was initially slated for a $16 million cut in FY2012. The program funds innovative high-risk, high-reward research projects supporting basic and clinical research. Without this funding, new prostate cancer drugs such as Xgeva and Zytiga that have reached Food and Drug Administration approval and are currently saving lives would remain in clinical trials. The Senate will now consider the appropriation.

"By reaching out to our extensive network of committed prostate cancer advocates and asking them to write to their elected officials, we were able to protect this research funding, which is crucial to the more than 240,800 men that will be diagnosed and the 33,720 who will die from prostate cancer this year alone," said Skip Lockwood, ZERO's CEO. "We are grateful to Congressman Stearns for offering the amendment and the House for unanimously voting to restore PCRP funding."

To continue the fight against prostate cancer, ZERO is hosting the Summit to End Prostate Cancer on September 20-22 in Washington, D.C. Participants will have the chance to meet with elected officials about the need to increase the federal government's commitment to finding a cure for prostate cancer. Visit http://zerocancer.org/get-involved/summit/ for more information and to register for the Summit.

About ZERO — The Project to End Prostate Cancer (www.zerocancer.org)

As ZERO — The Project to End Prostate Cancer, we commit ourselves not only to reduce prostate cancer or alleviate the pain from the disease but to end it. We see a future where all men who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer will be cured or manage their illness with good quality of life, with the support they need to minimize physical and emotional suffering and to cope effectively throughout their cancer journeys.

To accomplish our goal, we increase research funds from the federal government to find new treatments and we fund local grants to end prostate cancer through our national event series, the Great Prostate Cancer Challenge. We conduct free testing through the Drive Against Prostate Cancer mobile testing program and educate patients, families and those at-risk.

SOURCE ZERO - The Project to End Prostate Cancer