Kara Maxwell, an assistant professor of medicine and genetics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, received the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s (PCF) 2020 Gary and Allison Lieberman—PCF VAlor Young Investigator Award, and Ravi Parikh, an assistant professor of medical ethics and health policy and medicine at Penn, received PCF’s 2020 David Yurman—PCF VAlor Young Investigator Award.

Drs. Maxwell and Parikh are also staff physicians at the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center. Dr. Maxwell will further investigate the genetic mechanisms underlying the efficacy of treatments—including PARP inhibitors and checkpoint immunotherapy—for prostate cancer in Black men, who have a significantly higher chance of developing the disease and dying from it compared to men of European descent. The research will inform new clinical trials and the way Black patients, including the vulnerable veteran population with aggressive and lethal prostate cancer are treated clinically. Dr. Parikh will be developing new clinical biomarker tests that can identify which patients undergoing hormonal therapy are at risk for developing bone fractures, and should be prescribed early bone maintenance therapies. This will significantly improve quality-of-life for patients with advanced prostate cancer, starting with the veteran population.