The Pancreatic Cancer Alliance exists to support the efforts of the medical and research communities as well as patients and their loved ones in the battle against pancreatic cancer.
Our goals are:
To raise money for research
To help educate patients and medical professionals
To raise public awareness of pancreatic cancer
To fulfill that mission, we are pursuing the following:
Translational research: To raise seed money to recruit and support a physician-researcher at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. This person would be charged with developing clinical trials specifically for pancreatic cancer to use research knowledge from the labs at UMass and elsewhere to create new treatments to help patients at the bedside. Initial goal: $125,000.
Educational: To create materials for newly diagnosed patients for distribution to medical offices, libraries, and health agencies and to offer support resources to patients and their families. Components covering the genetic causes of the disease and additional resources for patients and families are being added to this web site as well.
Endowed position: To support the creation of an endowed position at the UMass Medical School dedicated to the fight against pancreatic cancer. Need: $1.5 million.
The Alliance began with a research briefing at UMass in October 2003 attended by family members, caregivers and patients. There, UMass clinicians and researchers showed what's being done to fight pancreatic cancer right in Central Massachusetts, and we learned what can be done to support them. For a newspaper story about that meeting, please click here.
The initial briefing was the product of a discussion between Dr. Altieri and Tom Cole, who lost his mother to pancreatic cancer in February 2003 and wanted to know what could be done to get more research attention paid to pancreatic cancer. Read about Dr. Altieri here in a newspaper profile..
Site maintained by
Tom Cole. Questions, comments and suggestions: info@
pancreaticalliance.org