FUND A CURE FOR PANCREATIC
CANCER LAUNCHES WEBSITE
TO: ALL MEDIA
DATE: 7/11/08
CONTACT: Robert L. Ciervo, Ph.D., Chairman and President, Fund A Cure for
Pancreatic Cancer, 215-932-3200
NEWTOWN, PA - Today the Chairman and
President of Fund A Cure for Pancreatic Cancer, a registered non-profit
advocacy group dedicated to increase awareness about pancreatic cancer and
the lack of adequate research funding for the disease, announced the formal
launch of
www.fundacure.com. The website provides visitors information about the
disease of pancreatic cancer, affliction rates, survival and death rates,
the amount of federal research dollars appropriated each year and how
members of the public can contact their local members of Congress to
advocate for a major increase in funding to combat this deadly disease.
The mission of Fund A Cure for
Pancreatic Cancer is as follows "It
is the mission of Fund A Cure for Pancreatic Cancer, a non-profit group
dedicated to increasing funding for pancreatic cancer research, to
strenuously advocate for the allocation of appropriate research funding from
the United States federal government to the National Cancer Institute to
discover and develop enhanced detection techniques and vastly improved
treatment methods for pancreatic cancer. To this end Fund A Cure, targets
its focus and resources increasing awareness about pancreatic cancer among
the American public and to advocate that the federal government shift
funding priorities and allocate $1 billion a year in research dollars to
fight the most deadliest of cancers which afflicts 100 new American
residents every day and steals over 30,000 U.S. lives every year."
On the front page of the site is a
time counter which represents how many days, hours, minutes and seconds the
average patient has to live after being diagnosed. Inside other important
information is detailed to stress the fact that pancreatic cancer has the
worst 5 year survival rate (only 5%) of any cancer and receives inadequate
funding from the federal government towards researching a cure.
The index page states "Pancreatic Cancer
is one of the most deadliest diseases in the United States and yet it
continues to receive woefully inadequate research funding every year.
Approximately
37,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
each year but the federal government only allocated $73.3 million in 2007 to
fund research on pancreatic cancer (over $2.9 billion was allocated in
federal research dollars alone for AIDS which only afflicts 40,000 new US
residents each year). This inadequate funding contributes to the poor
prognosis of those afflicted with this horrible disease. The average life
span after diagnosis is only 6 months and 75% of those diagnosed will not
survive more than one year. Patients are dying because funding priorities
are not being based on science and the lethality of disease."
Chairman Dr. Robert Ciervo was
inspired to start the non-profit from his father's battle against pancreatic
cancer and after learning of the extremely poor level of research funding
from the federal government. "I was alarmed to learn that pancreatic cancer
kills nearly as many Americans each year as does breast cancer and twice as
many as AIDS, yet it only receives $73 million a year in federal research
dollars. That is nearly 8 times less than breast cancer research funding
and nearly 40 times less each year than HIV/AIDS research funding. It is
time Congress addresses this injustice and makes a full faith effort to
battle this disease that kills nearly 80% of those diagnosed in less than
one year. Through significant investment the medical research community has
been able to make the 5 year survival rates of breast cancer to 89% and 95%
for AIDS. It is time we cared about those afflicted with pancreatic cancer
and their families."
As an elected official himself Ciervo knows it will be an uphill battle to
get Congress to act, but he believes this new organization can be the
catalyst to providing the life saving research funds necessary to make a
difference.
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