$500,000 award will be used to support patients with pancreatic cancer
The Canopy Cancer Collective, a nonprofit organization that strives to provide hope to patients with pancreatic cancer in the form of new treatments and options, has awarded $500,000 to Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center to improve the focus on multidisciplinary treatment of pancreas disease.
Pancreatic cancer, although rare, is extremely difficult to treat. Often called the “silent killer,” as symptoms don’t appear until the disease has spread to surrounding organs, pancreatic cancer is typically diagnosed at later, more advanced disease stages and tends to resist standard treatments like chemotherapy and radiation.
Patients benefit from comprehensive care
“The survival of patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer remains very poor, despite recent advances in the field,” says Steven Hochwald, MD, MBA, FACS, Chief of Gastrointestinal/Endocrine Surgery and Vice Chair of the Department of Surgical Oncology at Roswell Park. “After a pancreatic cancer diagnosis, patients will need a myriad of supportive services to help them cope and navigate their treatment options, including genetic testing, nutritional support, psychosocial counseling, pain management and palliative care.”
Because pancreatic cancer is so difficult to treat, a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach is essential. Each patient requires coordinated efforts from multiple physician-experts specializing in cancer treatment, including medical oncologists, surgical oncologists, radiation oncologists and gastroenterologists, as well as nurses, nutritionists, psychologists and other care providers.
Why Roswell Park for Pancreatic Cancer?
Find out what makes Roswell Park unique in fighting pancreatic cancer.
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To advance the care of pancreatic disease, Canopy Cancer Collective connects multiple institutions to foster collaboration among teams of top medical care providers, coordinate helpful patient services and tools and build better data-sharing networks, with the overall goal of achieving the best-available care for patients with pancreatic cancer. “We partner with patients and their families to bypass bureaucracy so they can focus their energy on overcoming cancer,” explains Bobby Korah, MD, MBA, CCRP, Director of Program Operations at the collective. “Our goal is to create a learning network of health practitioners to help cancer centers deliver innovative, comprehensive, coordinated and more effective care to their patients.”
As the only National Pancreas Foundation (NPF)-dedicated cancer center in our region, Roswell Park has long been recognized for its multidisciplinary, “whole patient” treatment approach to pancreatic cancer. Roswell Park will now join a network of premier healthcare facilities dedicated to improving the care of patients with pancreatic cancer. “We are one of eight institutions to get the grant this year, and six institutions received the funds last year,” says Dr. Hochwald. “Now that we are part of this novel learning network, we can share data with other comprehensive cancer centers to shape best practices and help advance the care of patients who have been diagnosed with this devastating disease."
