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Felix Feng, Massive within the Box of Prostate Most cancers, Dies at 48

Felix Feng, Massive within the Box of Prostate Most cancers, Dies at 48
January 23, 2025



The UC San Francisco and world oncology communities mourn the dying of Felix Y. Feng, MD, a nationally famend radiation oncologist and a number one determine in genitourinary most cancers analysis. A professor of radiation oncology, urology and drugs, and vice chair of translational analysis at the united states Helen Diller Circle of relatives Complete Most cancers Heart, Feng passed on to the great beyond from most cancers on Dec.10, 2024, on the age of 48.

“Felix Feng used to be an outstanding scientist – a once-in-a-generation scientist – and his staggering mind and medical insights ended in his exceptional medical accomplishments,” stated Eric J. Small, MD, deputy director and leader medical officer of the united states Helen Diller Circle of relatives Complete Most cancers Heart and co-director of the united states Prostate Most cancers Program with Feng. “However as vital as his medical successes have been, Felix may construct communities of people, collaborations and groups like no person else. He’ll be profoundly neglected by means of his many pals and co-workers at UCSF and around the country.”

A distinguished radiation oncologist, scientist, writer and researcher, Feng devoted his lifestyles’s paintings to genitourinary most cancers care and analysis. As a professional in translational genomics and pre-clinical therapeutics for prostate most cancers, Feng’s analysis centered at the discovery of prognostic and predictive biomarkers to advance precision most cancers medication, and novel healing methods to triumph over remedy resistance for sufferers with competitive prostate most cancers.

… the magnitude of what we accomplish isn’t measured in simply what we’ve got executed however measured in relation to the type of collective efforts of everybody that you simply’ve helped alongside the way in which.”

Felix Y. Feng, MD

Underneath his steerage, biologists and computational scientists within the Feng Laboratory at UCSF produced the primary clinical-grade biomarker panels that are expecting prostate most cancers reaction to radiation or hormone treatment after surgical procedure, advanced a DNA biomarker that predicts resistance to centered treatment and helped uncover the processes during which explicit genes give a contribution to prostate most cancers development and metastasis.

Feng performed a large number of scientific trials comparing new remedies and used to be co-principal investigator on one of the most first biomarker-driven scientific trials for sufferers with metastatic prostate most cancers. He used to be additionally the major investigator for a couple of analysis undertaking grants from quite a few federal assets and foundations, together with a multimillion-dollar SPORE grant from the Nationwide Most cancers Institute for UCSF’s Prostate Most cancers Program.

Along with his transformative most cancers analysis, Feng used to be additionally a professional radiation oncologist who co-led UCSF’s prostate most cancers program centered at the remedy of prostate most cancers sufferers. He cared for sufferers with high-risk competitive prostate cancers in addition to oligometastatic illness. His cutting edge healing approaches incorporated intensity-modulated radiation treatment and stereotactic ablative radiotherapy. As an entrepreneur, he based two corporations aimed toward individualizing most cancers remedies for each and every affected person.

“Felix used to be a large within the box of prostate most cancers and had an inspiring imaginative and prescient of integrating genomics information with experimental biology, permitting us to check the serve as of the genetic mutations that have been being found out, and creating new tactics of treating prostate most cancers,” stated Jonathan Chou, MD, PhD, UCSF genitourinary oncologist and a widespread collaborator of Feng’s. “Felix did all of it, and used to be a real renaissance guy, main landmark research no longer most effective in biomarker construction in radiation oncology trials and advancing synthetic intelligence equipment for prostate most cancers, but additionally pioneering approaches to discover the genomic, epigenomic and 3-D chromatin landscapes from tiny biopsy samples of metastatic prostate most cancers. As a result of he may so simply navigate between the scientific and analysis spheres, he had an all-encompassing hen’s eye view of prostate most cancers analysis, at all times understanding the place the puck used to be going to subsequent, and being some of the first to get there.”

All through his profession, Feng had 434 publications to his credit score, averaging to 23 publications in step with yr, just about two per 30 days, each month of once a year. Feng used to be just lately ranked within the most sensible 1% of scientists within the U.S. by means of an across the world identified metric, measuring his productiveness and have an effect on of his scholarly publications.

His contributions to the sphere have been time and again identified with awards and accolades, amongst them, a number of from the American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) together with the Medical Science Award, Fundamental Science Award, Translational Analysis Symposium Benefit award and Resident Medical Analysis Award.

Felix Feng, Massive within the Box of Prostate Most cancers, Dies at 48

The past due Felix Feng, MD (heart) with researchers Jonathan Chou, MD, PhD (left) and Lisa Chesner, PhD (proper), in 2019.
Picture by means of Noah Berger

Award-winning mentor

Along with his legacy as a pioneering physician-scientist, Feng used to be additionally a devoted mentor to his researchers and clinicians and located nice gratification in coaching and provoking the following era of physicians and researchers.

In 2024, Feng gained the “Mentorship Award” from ASTRO. In December, the American Society for Medical Oncology (ASCO) endowed a brand new “Felix Feng Prostate Most cancers Younger Investigator Award,” which is able to fund a tender prostate most cancers investigator every year.

Felix confirmed me, and others, that collaboration and kindness aren’t simply nice-to-haves however crucial components for development in science and in lifestyles.”

Xiaolin Xu, MD, PhD

Feng himself described mentorship studies and the position of mentorship as a core element of his lifestyles. “I believe that the magnitude of what we accomplish isn’t measured in simply what we’ve got executed however measured in relation to the type of collective efforts of everybody that you simply’ve helped alongside the way in which,” he stated.

For Carissa Chu, MD, UCSF urologic most cancers surgeon and a former member of Feng’s lab, his have an effect on on everybody he got here in touch with used to be profound.

“Felix stored many lives and altered them for the easier. He performed a an important position in my adventure each step of the way in which,” stated Chu. “When I used to be nonetheless a trainee, he took me beneath his wing as any person who had an excessively restricted talent set and simply surrounded me along with his sources and his other folks and, importantly, freedom. He driven me after I had to be driven, however he by no means hovered or micromanaged. I’ve had many mentors in my coaching, however none of them have been like Felix. Felix used to be any person who climbed in no time to the highest. And as an alternative of taking a look out and playing the view, he has seemed again, reached in the back of him, discovered the youngest individual within the room and stated, “Don’t fear about falling or lacking a step – take a look at once more you’ll do that.”

Every other of his mentees, Xiaolin Zhu, MD, PhD, UCSF genitourinary oncologist and member of the Feng Lab, says an important lesson he realized from Feng used to be to assist others on every occasion you’ll.

“Felix’s have an effect on used to be no longer on the subject of what number of sources he had, how sensible he used to be, or what number of groundbreaking papers he revealed – despite the fact that he’s remarkable in these kinds of spaces – what actually units him aside is how beneficiant an individual he used to be,” stated Zhu. “Felix in reality cared about other folks, and he deeply believed that by means of serving to others, we will transfer the science ahead in combination. This isn’t simply mentorship within the conventional sense – it’s some way of being. Felix confirmed me, and others, that collaboration and kindness aren’t simply nice-to-haves however crucial components for development in science and in lifestyles.”

“He introduced junior scientists alongside for the trip after which shared credit score abundantly. He used to be additionally an enormous supporter of ladies scientists within the lab, recruiting to get the most productive minds to enroll in his quest to overcome prostate most cancers (in a box this is predominantly male), and used to be intentional about construction group inside of our lab, as exemplified by means of glad hours, lab lunches and our annual rafting go back and forth down the American River,” stated Jonathan Chou. “For me in my opinion and my profession, Felix used to be instrumental in serving to me transition from fellow to school, supporting me as I advanced translational analysis tasks in bladder most cancers, along with proceeding my paintings in prostate most cancers. He used to be a premier physician-scientist, and any person who I completely style my very own profession after.”

Postdoctoral scholar Lisa Chesner, PhD, and Feliz Feng, MD, talk animatedley as Feng writes on a transluscent dry-erase board.

Picture by means of Noah Berger

His adventure to oncology management

Feng used to be raised in Palo Alto and gained his undergraduate coaching from Stanford College, the place he earned a point in Organic Sciences and gained a President’s Award for Instructional Excellence. He studied medication at Washington College in St. Louis, the place he gained a large number of awards for his analysis and educational achievements. He finished each a postdoctoral analysis fellowship and his residency in radiation oncology on the College of Michigan. He joined the school there, turning into director of the translational genomics department, co-led the multidisciplinary health center for prostate most cancers sufferers, and directed the radiation oncology division’s genitourinary most cancers program.

Since becoming a member of UCSF in 2016, he held a large number of management roles that complicated UCSF’s challenge and reinforced most cancers analysis and remedy. He used to be a George and Judy Marcus Prominent Professor; the aforementioned vice chair for translational analysis in the united states Division of Radiation Oncology, the director of the Benioff Initiative for Prostate Most cancers Analysis, affiliate director for translational scientific analysis and co-leader of the Prostate Most cancers Program for the united states Helen Diller Circle of relatives Complete Most cancers Heart.

His management additionally prolonged to organizations outdoor of UCSF within the nationwide and world most cancers analysis group. As a member of the Nationwide Most cancers Institute’s Genitourinary Most cancers Guidance Committee, he helped oversee and evaluation scientific trials proposed by means of nationwide scientific trials teams. He additionally served as chair of the Biology Medical Monitor for ASTRO and served as chair of the Genitourinary Translational Analysis Program for the RTOG/NRG nationwide scientific trials crew. Feng’s have an effect on prolonged to the world most cancers group as he established a community of study collaborations throughout North The us, in Europe, Asia and Australia.

Remaining yr, Feng and different distinguished most cancers researchers, established The Feng Symposium to carry in combination a various crew of most cancers researchers to supply a unmarried discussion board for a dialogue of novel, state of the art healing approaches to prostate most cancers. The symposium will once more happen this February, giving researchers from bench science, translational and scientific disciplines a chance to bond and shape medical connections around the spectrum of prostate most cancers analysis.

The symposium displays the private {and professional} relationships that Feng cultivated over the process his profession and the have an effect on he had on pals and co-workers alike.

“The tale everybody right here, and numerous others, will let you know is that while you have been spending time with Felix – speaking science, making plans a scientific trial, discussing affected person care, mulling over onco-politics, grabbing a espresso at Starbucks – that Felix used to be provide,” famous Eric Small. “Felix made it transparent that dialogue, that query, that second, used to be an important on this planet. Felix, greater than any individual I do know, did that.”

Felix Feng poses for a portrait outdoors among a concrete backdrop.

Picture by means of Maurice Ramirez

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