PanCAN

Imagine a world where #pancreaticcancer is detected early, where patients are guided to the best care from the moment of diagnosis, and where discoveries move from the lab to saving lives in years, not decades. That is the future PanCAN is building — by bringing together patients, families, researchers and clinicians to transform the future of this disease. 💜

Today at #PanCANPurpleStride, we launch our most ambitious effort yet, the $250 million All Together We Can campaign. Our vision: to make survival the expectation, not the exception, for the tens of thousands of people diagnosed with this disease every year.

Why now? Because this disease remains the deadliest major cancer and the only one with a five-year survival rate below 20%. Because patients and their loved ones deserve more time, more treatment options and more effective screening strategies. Because our community knows that when we’re united in purpose and vision, we can achieve anything — and we’re ready to take on this next chapter.

Learn more about how, over the next five years, the All Together We Can campaign will invest across three strategic pillars — forming a comprehensive approach to accelerate progress and improve survival for pancreatic cancer patients at 🔗 pcan.at/all-together-w….

Share this post to help raise awareness of pancreatic cancer symptoms. 🎗️

Growing up, Kirsten Bryant, PhD, was her dad’s shadow. She remembers pushing a toy wheelbarrow alongside him while he tended to the gardens at their family’s home in Pennsylvania — one of his favorite pastimes. Sometimes, she even took naps in the flowerbeds to be close to him. 💜

When her dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2012, Kirsten was finishing her PhD at Cornell University. He died just 11 months later.

In the wake of this loss, Dr. Bryant felt called to make a difference for other families facing this disease.

“As I looked into what I was going to study in my postdoctoral studies and basically devote my life to, I felt like I could make the jump to pancreatic cancer,” she said. “That’s what I’ve worked on ever since.”

With support from a PanCAN Pathway to Leadership Grant in 2015, Dr. Bryant was able to advance her research and launch her career as an independent investigator. Today, she’s at the forefront of research transforming treatment for pancreatic cancer.

“When I started out in Dr. Der’s lab, KRAS was still considered an ‘undruggable’ target. Now, the first RAS-targeting therapy for pancreatic cancer has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and more therapies are in the pipeline than ever before,” she said.

But she knows there is still more work to do.

“We have targeted molecules. This has taken over 40 years. This is a huge advancement for the field, but we’re not curing patients with RAS inhibitors alone,” she said. “More work definitely needs to be done. Now we need to take the next step, and that’s why we need to continue this momentum.”

For Dr. Bryant, the work is personal. It’s about making a difference for patients facing this disease, like her dad.

“I like to think that he’s watching what I’m doing and is proud of what I’m doing, but I would also say that it’s certainly not done,” she said. “I think he would definitely tell me, ‘Nice job, but you’ve got more work to do.’

That is certainly what we’re going to keep doing.”

Read more about Dr. Bryant’s research at @UNC_Lineberger, her dad’s legacy and how PanCAN support is helping advance pancreatic cancer research at 🔗 pcan.at/wt3e9bul.

This Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, let’s spread hope by celebrating every milestone. 💜

Survivors, share how many years you’ve been a pancreatic cancer survivor in the comments! If you haven’t reached a year yet, we’d love to hear how many months. Every milestone matters!

We are so grateful to @OfficialNBARefs for raising #PanCANawareness this November with PanCAN, in memory of Tony Brown and Greg Willard. 💜