This is the 28th Los Angeles Cancer Challenge and this is my 28th as well. I have been at this since day one and our team has funded entire seed grants in years past.
It's been 27 years since Liz's sister and mom were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and 22 years since team namesake Heather was diagnosed. The incidence of pancreatic cancer has more than doubled in that time, from 29,000 new cases in 1998 to more than 67,000 new cases this year. We continue to make progress in fighting the disease but survival rates remain dismally poor and the steady growth of the disease has outstripped those gains such that pancreatic deaths are up 80% over the same period. Pancreatic cancer deaths surpassed breast cancer deaths in the US in 2016 and the gap has already widened by 22%. More alarming, pancreatic cancer deaths are projected to overtake colon cancer in the next year, leaving only lung cancer ahead on the list.
This mission is about so much more than the loved ones I've lost: Connie, Chris, Heather, Etta, Lisa and Walter. It's about people I know who are living with pancreatic cancer as I write this, people like Harris, Esther, Tom, Peter and Hope. They are the people I feel most beholden to.
Pancreatic cancer is a vicious and unforgiving disease and we need to marshal everything we can to combat it. Research is the only thing that will change the needle on pancreatic cancer and we parcel the proceeds of this event into seed grants that go directly to pancreatic cancer researchers -- we sow seeds of innovation -- so please join us in memory of those we have lost and in honor of those living with pancreatic cancer and others we have yet to meet.
