Cedars-Sinai prostate center to get $35 million from Sumner Redstone

Billionaire media mogul Sumner M. Redstone on Wednesday announced pledges totaling $105 million to three medical centers involved in the research and treatment of burns and prostate cancer -- ailments with which the Beverly Hills resident has had personal experience.

The Viacom Inc. executive chairman said he would give $35 million apiece to the Cedars-Sinai Prostate Care Center in Los Angeles; FasterCures/The Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions, based in Washington, D.C.; and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The grants are to be paid out in cash over five years.

Although Redstone, 83, has not been conspicuous as a philanthropist, in an interview Wednesday he said, “I felt the time had come for me to go all the way -- as far as I’m able to go in helping these people and institutions.”

He expressed the hope that the money, which he said represents a large proportion of his personal wealth that isn’t tied up in Viacom stock, might prompt “other people in my position” to make similar gifts.

New York-based Viacom is the parent company of Paramount Pictures, MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.

Redstone suffered burns over 60% of his body in a 1979 hotel fire in his hometown of Boston and underwent three months of intensive and painful treatment at Massachusetts General. The gift will fund research and expand the hospital’s burn and trauma care capabilities.

Redstone first publicly disclosed Wednesday that he underwent treatment at Cedars-Sinai in the last couple of years for prostate cancer.

“I am completely free of disease and honestly have never felt better in my life,” he said. His grant will help support a six-year national prostate cancer study.

FasterCures, founded by the Milken Institute, works to accelerate development of treatments for various types of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and other maladies.

tom.mulligan@latimes.com