Lustgarten Foundation and Stand Up To Cancer Announce Two New Pancreatic Cancer Research Projects Focused on Doubling the Number of Surgical Interventions

Woodbury, NY – The Lustgarten Foundation and Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) announced today the launch of two new pancreatic cancer interception research projects – one focused on earlier detection and the other on surgical intervention. The total investment for these projects is nearly $10 million and will involve thousands of patients.
“We are pleased to once again join forces with Stand Up To Cancer,” said Dr. Robert Vizza, the Foundation’s Vice Chairman, Research. “Since only 15% of pancreatic cancer patients are currently eligible for surgery, if we are able to diagnose patients earlier and increase the number of patients who can have surgery, we will significantly increase survival rates.”

SU2C-Lustgarten Foundation Pancreatic Cancer Interception Dream Team: Intercepting Pancreatic Cancer in High Risk Cohorts

The goal of this Dream Team is to enable pancreatic cancer interception in high risk cohorts through a multi-disciplinary, multi-pronged approach. Researchers from six renowned institutions (Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Mayo Clinic, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Moores Cancer Center, University of California San Diego Health, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston) will work on developing a blood test for diagnosis of pancreatic cancer when it has still not clinically manifested itself. They will also test 2,000 pancreatic cancer patients for heritable mutations
and screen their immediate family members for potential pancreatic cancer risk. Additionally, a small subset of high risk individuals that are currently cancer free will be enrolled in the first ever vaccine trial to prevent pancreatic cancer.

 SU2C-Lustgarten Pancreatic Cancer Interception Translational Research Team

This Interception Translational Research Team is comprised of doctors from five leading treatment centers (Johns Hopkins Cancer Centers, Massachusetts General Hospital, NYU Langone Cancer Center, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and University of Colorado Cancer Center). This team’s objective is to implement a clinical trial of early stage pancreatic cancer patients comparing those who receive chemotherapy treatment before surgery to those who don’t receive any treatment. Initial data from this work show impressive improvements in both the number of patients able to benefit from surgery, and improved outcomes for those patients who received treatment first.

These new projects bring the number of pancreatic cancer research projects funded by the Lustgarten Foundation and Stand Up To Cancer to eight, for a collective investment of almost $67 million focused on pancreatic cancer.