In the last year, pancreatic cancer surpassed breast cancer to become the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. The average five-year survival rate is just 8%. Of the 53, 070 Americans who will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year, many will be advanced-stage due to no early detections methods. And with limited effective treatment options, most will not survive. It’s time for us to change the course of this deadly disease.
Tommy and Judi Zitiello traveled to Washington DC in June to call on Congress to wage hope by asking our Senators and Representatives to:
- Putting the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on a path of sustained growth by appropriating $34.5 billion for the NIH, including $5.9 billion for the National Cancer Institute (NCI)
- Allocating a portion of any Cancer Moonshot funding to our nation’s deadliest cancers – the recalcitrant cancers that have a five year survival rate below 50%
- Joining the bicameral Congressional Caucus on the Deadliest Cancers.
- Continuing to include pancreatic cancer in the Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program and providing at least the FY2016 funding level of $50 million.
- Senate passage of an Innovation for Healthier Americans Initiative legislative package that includes NIH funding.
Judi Zitiello is a PC Survivor having been diagnosed April 29th, 2014. Currently, she is cancer-free with no reoccurrence since her surgery and treatment. She is a champion and a miracle!
*American Cancer Society Cancer Facts & Figures 2016 Atlanta: American Cancer Society 2016