Youth movement in prostate cancer research

Boston is well represented among young researchers receiving grants to continue their prostate cancer research.

The Prostate Cancer Foundation, a philanthropy based in Santa Monica, Calif., has awarded 19 junior faculty members a total of $4.3 million over three years to encourage further research. Five are from Boston. The investigators' three-year, $225,000 grants will be matched by their institutions.

The award-winners, their proposals, and their mentors are:

Mohamed S. Arredouani of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, development of prostate cancer vaccines that use molecules involved in transforming normal cells into malignant ones. Mentor: Dr. Martin Sanda.

Dr. Adam Feldman of Massachusetts General Hospital, using certain prostate cancer proteins present in urine to diagnose and evaluate the disease's progression. Mentors: Dr. Matthew Smith and Bruce Zetter.

Isil Guney of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, understanding how hormone-therapy resistance develops in prostate cancer and how to treat metastatic disease after it occurs. Mentor: Dr. William C. Hahn.

Lorelei A. Mucci of the Harvard School of Public Health, studying fusions of chromosomes that lead to cancer-causing molecules and examining how the fusions are related to hormones, energy, and weight in 1,500 men who have prostate cancer. Mentors: Dr. Philip Kantoff and Dr. Meir Stampfer.

Dr. Mark Pomerantz of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, researching how certain genomic alterations increase prostate cancer risk. Mentors: Kantoff and Dr. Matthew Freedman.