A new initiative combining the forces of 46 leading cancer organizations is taking on one of the cancer community’s most difficult challenges – putting an end to pancreatic cancer. The just launched globalCure alliance was formed by the nonprofit Phoenix, Arizona-based Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and the new Pancreatic Cancer Research Team (PCRT), which includes leading pancreatic cancer scientists, physicians and researchers.
Worldwide, pancreatic cancer is the fourth-leading cause of cancer death. In the United States, it is the third leading cause of cancer-related death in women and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in men.
The survival rate is poor because pancreatic cancer is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage. During the past three decades, according to the National Cancer Institute, overall pancreatic cancer incidence and mortality rates have changed very little.
The new alliance aims to use collaboration to accelerate research, improve disease treatment and, ultimately, find a cure. The initiative expects their first impact will be extending the life expectancy of patients. Research will focus on identifying genes that may reveal a predisposition to getting the disease, as well as understanding the genetic changes contributing to disease progression and resistance to therapy.
"The globalCure initiative is a coordinated worldwide effort to extend the lives of patients battling pancreatic cancer right now with the ultimate goal of curing this disease,” said Derrick Hall, President and CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks and a member of the globalCure National Advisory Council.
Organizations participating in the initiative include Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins University, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Hospital 12 de Octubre, Cancer Center-UK/Cambridge Research UK, Centro Integral de Oncologia, University Hospital Gasthisberg and other leading institutions.
Funds generated through globalCure will enable scientists and clinicians to: identify biomarkers of diagnostic value, as well as those that constitute new drug targets in pancreatic cancer; identify and optimize new agents that affect the activity of those targets; and evaluate new agents and take the most promising ones to clinical trials for patients in advanced stages of the disease.
Oncologists participating in globalCure, including TGen Physician-In-Chief, Dr. Daniel Von Hoff, already are seeing positive results. Howard Young, an Atlanta businessman and pancreatic cancer patient, is in complete disease remission. “They saved my life and they will save the lives of over 235,000 people each year when we cure this cancer,” said Young, a member of the TGen Foundation Board of Directors and Chairman of the globalCure National Advisory Council.
As new understandings about the underlying genetic causes of the disease and its resistance to traditional treatments are made, globalCure will quickly communicate them to the international medical community for the ultimate benefit of patients and their families.
Resources:
globalCure website: www.gcure.org
TGen website: www.tgen.org
Pancreatic cancer: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/pancreatic