Vincent Pastore, who portrayed Salvatore "Big P#ssy" Bonpensiero on the Emmy Award winning series, "The Sopranos," won $50,000 for The Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Research in last night's (01/24/08) episode of NBC's "The Celebrity Apprentice," with Donald "The Donald" Trump.


Pastore won the prize in a challenge that pit two teams against each other to sell the most tickets to a hit Broadway show. He chose The Lustgarten Foundation as his charity to honor a close personal friend, Mitchell Berke, who succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2007.


Said Kerri Kaplan, the Lustgarten Foundation's Executive Director, "Vincent has 'gone to the mattresses' in the fight against this dreaded killer. We are confident his work on 'The Celebrity Apprentice' will drive increased public awareness and giving, which are two of our most valuable weapons in the battle against pancreatic cancer."


This installment of Donald Trump's series pits celebrity contestants against each other in business-related challenges in and around New York City.


Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of all cancer deaths in the United States and the third leading cause of cancer deaths in individuals ages 40 to 60. Approximately 37,000 Americans are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year, and, each year, approximately the same number die from it. Often, pancreatic cancer is found too late for surgical intervention, and chemotherapy and radiation treatments have little effect.