Facts and Statistics to Share with Policymakers

Your advocacy document library:

FACT SHEET: Pancreatic Cancer Facts 2019

FACT SHEET: Halt the Growing Threat of Pancreatic Cancer – Increase Federal Research Funding

FACT SHEET: Create a Dedicated Pancreatic Cancer Research Program at the Department of Defense

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE: Projecting Cancer Incidence and Deaths to 2030: The Unexpected Burden of Thyroid, Liver, and Pancreas Cancers in the United States.  Published in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Cancer Research and co-authored by Lynn Matrisian, PhD, MBA, Vice President of Scientific and Medical Affairs, the article predicts that pancreatic cancer will move from the fourth to the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States by 2020, when the number of deaths caused by pancreatic cancer exceeds the number for colorectal cancer. By 2030, the top five cancer killers are predicted to be lung, pancreatic, liver, colorectal and breast – a dramatic shift from the current ranking of lung, colorectal, breast, pancreatic and prostate. Lung, pancreatic and liver cancers are all considered “deadly cancers” because their five-year relative survival rates are below 50 percent.

REPORT: Pancreatic Cancer: A trickle of federal funding for a river of need. Why survival rates for pancreatic cancer have remained in the single digits for 40 years

REPORT: National Plan to Advance Pancreatic Cancer Research (full text) – This report, developed by the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network’s Scientific Advisory Board in 2008, formed the basis for the Pancreatic Cancer Research & Education Act, which became the Recalcitrant Cancer Research Act.

TESTIMONY: Megan Gordon Don, Director of Government Affairs & Advocacy for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and Chair of the Deadliest Cancers Coalition, a coalition founded and run by the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, testified to the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy & Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health on Tuesday, March 23, 2010. Click here to read the testimony.

REGULATORY POLICY: On behalf of survivors, caregivers, clinicians and researchers, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network periodically submits comments on proposed regulations to government agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). We also often sign on to joint comment letters with other advocacy organizations on issues important to people affected by pancreatic cancer.

Letter submitted to the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force on pancreatic cancer screening

Letter submitted to the FDA on its draft guidance “In Vitro Companion Diagnostic Devices”

Letter submitted by the Cancer Leadership Council (a coalition to which the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network belongs) to the Department of Health and Human Services on cancer patients’ needs in the essential health benefits under the Affordable Care Act (healthcare reform)

Letter submitted to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on its draft report “Imaging Tests for the Diagnosis and Staging of Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma”