ARIZONA CANCER CENTER
Media Advisory

Season of Hope
Arizona Cancer Center & UMC Launch Pancreatic Cancer Team

What: Media Conference inaugurating the Sydney Salmon Pancreatic Cancer Team

When: Tuesday, December 4, 2001 - 10:00 a.m.

Where: Arizona Cancer Center's Kiewit Auditorium

Why Special: With the formation of the Sydney Salmon Pancreatic Cancer Team, the Arizona Cancer Center and University Medical Center now join a small, elite group of cancer centers nationwide, including MD Anderson and Johns Hopkins, which have developed comprehensive, collaborative approaches to make inroads against this tremendously challenging form of cancer.

Additional Info: This holiday season in Arizona, one person will be diagnosed and one person will die of pancreatic cancer every day. Since the average life expectancy after diagnosis is only three to six months (with metastatic disease), the tragedy of this disease will touch hundreds of family members and friends throughout our state.

Now there is hope for the future this holiday season -- The Arizona Cancer Center and University Medical Center are proud of the partnership that has created the Sydney Salmon Pancreatic Cancer Team. It is a team which brings together a world-class group of physicians, research scientists, nurses, dieticians, social workers and other healthcare professionals. We believe that significant progress against pancreatic cancer can and will be made right here in Arizona.

Recently, Governor Hull and Mayor Walkup designated November as Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month to raise awareness of this form of cancer. Other shocking facts regarding pancreatic cancer and some of our specific inroads against this disease, are listed at the end of this message.

At the Arizona Cancer Center - University Medical Center, we are prepared to do our part. Led by internationally recognized expert on pancreatic cancer, Daniel Von Hoff, MD, FACP, our team is dedicated to providing superb diagnostic capabilities, ensuring patients and their families the best care possible, and striving to significantly improve quality of life for patients with pancreatic cancer.

The Team is named in honor of the Arizona Cancer Center's founding Director, Sydney Salmon, MD. Dr. Salmon, lost his battle with pancreatic cancer just a few years ago. As a team dedicated to his memory, our goal is founded on a commitment to Dr. Salmon to win the war against this disease. To that end our team is dedicated to providing superb diagnostic capabilities, ensuring patients and their families the best care possible, and striving to significantly improve quality of life for patients with pancreatic cancer.

Individual team members will be available for interviews following the press conference. If you wish to arrange interviews, contact Rob Raine at: 626-4413/ rraine@azcc.arizona.edu (or see me during the press conference).

The Arizona Cancer Center is dedicated to preventing and curing cancer through excellence in patient care, education, and research. The Center is one of a small, prestigious network of comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Comprehensive status is the highest ranking the NCI gives to cancer centers. University Medical Center, the teaching hospital for the University of Arizona College of Medicine, was ranked one of the top hospitals for cancer care by U.S. News and World Report in 2001. The Arizona Cancer Center - University Medical Center team is at the forefront of the war on pancreatic cancer!

• Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States among both men and women. It strikes indiscriminately. We need to change this!

• The 97 percent mortality rate for pancreatic cancer is the highest of any cancer. There is no cure or early detection test. The average life expectancy after diagnosis is only three to six months (with metastatic disease). We need to change this!

• In America, one in three women and one in two men will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. Currently, only 4 percent of patients with pancreatic cancer, will survive beyond five years. During this year in Arizona, one person will be diagnosed and one person will die of pancreatic cancer every day of the year. We need to change this!

• Despite the especially lethal nature of pancreatic cancer, the federal government invests less money in pancreatic cancer research than in any other leading cancer.

Some Arizona Cancer Center and University Medical Center successes against pancreatic cancer are:

• The Sydney Salmon Pancreatic Cancer Team, a comprehensive, collaborative approach to fighting this disease. The Team moves Arizona into a small, select group of cancer centers nationwide who have taken this approach.

• Arizona Cancer Center researchers have identified a gene implicated in pancreatic cancer.

• There are more than 30 new anticancer agents in the clinical research pipeline. Many of these new agents target specific molecular changes unique to cancer cells, reducing the side effects of treatment. Several of these new agents are available for patients with pancreatic cancer.

• Pain, fatigue, and loss of appetite can now be adequately controlled with new medications. New high-tech surgical appliances alleviate pain at the source.

• Our diagnostic team has new high-tech systems and improved techniques for finding pancreatic cancer, "the hidden killer," at its earliest stages.

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