Letters: Thanks, Randy, for pancreatic awareness

   I WOULD PERSONALLY like to thank Dr. Randy Pausch, who recently passed away, for all of his dedicated work in promoting awareness of   pancreatic cancer and the lack of adequate funding from the federal government.  Pancreatic cancer is an insidious disease with no known cause, no known cure and little money devoted to research.
 

It claims almost as many American lives as breast cancer each year, twice as many as AIDS and has the poorest five-year survival rate of any cancer, at only 5 percent. Seventy-five percent of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer die within 12 months and most within six months.

We need to raise the current paltry federal funding of $73 million a year for pancreatic cancer research to $1 billion a year to make a difference.

Congress could honor the memory and spirit of Randy Pausch by naming a new research center dedicated to developing better detection methods and improved cancer treatments at the National Cancer Institute after him.

We need people who are willing to fight for this cause, and our organization, Fund a Cure for Pancreatic Cancer (www.fundacure.com), will continue advocating for the appropriate level of research dollars to fund and find a cure.

Gail Szigeti, Vice Chairman
Fund a Cure for Pancreatic Cancer
Newtown, Pa.