Letter to the Editor: Support the Pancreatic Cancer Research & Education Act

Dear Editor,

On September 27, 2011 my mother, Wendy Brody Keil lost her battle with Pancreatic Cancer.  Wendy was a 59 year old, athletic, healthy woman when she was diagnosed in December.  Nine months later she was gone.

It is unacceptable in this day and age that there is a cancer for which the relative five-year survival rate is still in the single digits at just 6 percent.

It is particularly unacceptable when you consider that the overall 5-year relative survival for all cancers is now 67 percent and the overall cancer incidence and death rates are declining, while the incidence and death rates for pancreatic cancer, the nation’s fourth leading cause of cancer-related death, are increasing. This situation cannot be allowed to continue.

Congress has the power to change these statistics by passing the Pancreatic Cancer Research & Education Act (S. 362/H.R. 733), which
will ensure that the National Cancer Institute develops a long-term comprehensive strategic research plan.

The bill has overwhelming bi-partisan support, including nearly half of the Senate and over half of the House.  On June 26, advocates from New Jersey will join more than 550 individuals from across the country in Washington, D.C. for the Sixth Annual Pancreatic Cancer Advocacy Day to thank
Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen and Senator Frank Lautenberg for their support of the Pancreatic Cancer Research & Education Act and to urge them to work for its passage before the end of the year

Please join me in supporting those traveling to our nation’s capitol by contacting our members of Congress like Senator Lautenberg on June
26 for a National Call-In to ask them to pass the Pancreatic Cancer Research & Education Act.  

Go to www.knowitfightitendit.org to learn
more.

Together, we can make a difference in the fight against pancreatic cancer.

Sincerely,

Adam Keil
Summit, NJ