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July 25, 2008

The Honorable Patrick Murphy

United States House of Representatives

1007 Longworth HOB

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congressman Murphy:

I first want to thank you for your leadership in supporting House Resolution 257 last year to support the goals and ideals of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, which include finding a cure and early detection methods.

I read last week how Congress approved a bill to appropriate $50 billion for the treatment and prevention of AIDS and other diseases in foreign countries for the next 5 years.  While I applaud the efforts of Congress in that regard as a member of the pancreatic cancer community I feel once again those suffering from this insidious disease and the grieving families of those lost to this disease are getting shortchanged by our federal government with regard to funding for life saving research. Pancreatic cancer currently kills twice as many U.S. residents (33,000) each year than AIDS does.  While sending tens of billions of dollars overseas to fight AIDS is a noble cause it is a national embarrassment when our federal government will only appropriate a little more than $73 million a year on pancreatic cancer research here in the U.S.

Pancreatic cancer is the deadliest cancer known to man and patients once diagnosed have an average life expectancy of 6 months and a five year survival rate of 5% (as a comparison U.S. AIDS patients have a five year survival rate of 94% and an average post diagnosis life span of 24 years).  Pancreatic cancer afflicts over 37,000 U.S. residents every year and causes over 33,000 deaths making it the 4^th leading cause of cancer deaths.  Today approximately U.S. residents were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and over 90 died of this disease.  My own father Louis J. Ciervo, Jr. just succumbed to this disease on July 1, 2008.

Unfortunately the current funding level of $73.3 million a year towards pancreatic cancer research is woefully inadequate.  As a comparison, breast cancer (which causes a little more than 40,000 cancer deaths each year), garners $572 million in research dollars alone from the federal government each year, nearly 8 times that of pancreatic cancer, yet the 5 year survival rate is now 89%. 

This level of funding actually contributes to the continuing lethality of this disease.  The 5 year survival rate has only increased 2 points since the 1970s (up to 5% from 3%) and researchers are no closer to finding early detection methods or better treatment options than they were 30 years ago.

Our organization, Fund A Cure for Pancreatic Cancer (www.fundacure.com) which is a national non-profit organization located in Bucks County, is currently advocating that funding levels be increased to at least $1 billion a year.  While this may seem like a huge increase, it pales in comparison to sending $10 billion a year overseas to fight disease in other countries.

Without a major investment in research dollars which will bring a large group of talented young medical researchers to this field, I do not hold out much hope for finding a cure for this disease.  As a fellow elected official (Newtown Township Supervisor), I know and understand how you are besieged by many constituents asking for your assistance, but I must ask for your special attention immediately to the huge funding disparities between the various cancers and other funded disease research.

I do not wish to have my children writing to you in 15 years asking what you will do to keep their father’s efforts and their grandfather’s struggle against pancreatic cancer to be left in vain. 

I would ask if we could set up a time and day to meet so I could work with you and your staff on this very important issue.  If that is not possible I would appreciate meeting with one of your staff members in either your Bristol, PA or Washington, D.C. offices.

Sincerely,

Robert L. Ciervo, Ph.D., Founder and Chairman

Fund A Cure for Pancreatic Cancer Research

12 Kuhars Way

Newtown, PA 18940

rob@fundacure.com

215-932-3200

1-800-474-2173 fax
 

Why $1 Billion?

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