'Giant in the field': Oncologist, researcher Felix Feng dies at 48

Felix Feng, MD, a prominent radiation oncologist and cancer researcher, died Dec. 10 at age 48. 

Dr. Feng co-led University of California San Francisco's prostate cancer program at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, according to a Jan. 21 news release from the university.

"Felix was a giant in the field of prostate cancer and had an inspiring vision of integrating genomics data with experimental biology, allowing us to test the function of the genetic mutations that were being discovered, and developing new ways of treating prostate cancer," Jonathan Chou, MD, PhD, a genitourinary oncologist at UCSF and a frequent collaborator of Feng's, said in the release. "Felix did it all, and was a true renaissance man, leading landmark studies not only in biomarker development in radiation oncology trials and advancing artificial intelligence tools for prostate cancer, but also pioneering approaches to explore the genomic, epigenomic and 3D chromatin landscapes from tiny biopsy samples of metastatic prostate cancer." 

Since joining UCSF in 2016, Dr. Feng served as professor of radiation oncology, urology and medicine, as vice chair for translational research in the department of radiation oncology, as director of the Benioff Initiative for Prostate Cancer Research and as a George and Judy Marcus Distinguished Professor.

Under his leadership, scientists in the UCSF Feng Laboratory "produced the first clinical-grade biomarker panels that predict prostate cancer response to radiation or hormone therapy after surgery, developed a DNA biomarker that predicts resistance to targeted therapy and helped discover the processes by which specific genes contribute to prostate cancer progression and metastasis," the release said. 

The American Society of Radiation Oncology honored Dr. Feng with the Mentorship Award in 2024 for his long-standing commitment to training researchers and clinicians. He established The Feng Symposium with other prominent cancer researchers as a forum to discuss novel, state-of-the-art therapeutic approaches to prostate cancer. 

"I think that the magnitude of what we accomplish is not measured in just what we have done but measured in terms of the kind of collective efforts of everyone that you've helped along the way," he said, according to the release. 

Dr. Feng died of cancer. 

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