What is the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network?

In June 1996, Pamela Acosta was sitting with her mother, Rose, in a California hospital room when the doctor told her mom there was a cancerous tumor on her pancreas. Acosta asked, “Okay, what’s next?” The doctor looked down at his shoes. Her mother died six months later at age 68.

In 1999, three years after Acosta’s mother passed, Julie Fleshman’s father died of pancreatic cancer only four months after he had been diagnosed. She began searching for answers.

Meanwhile, Acosta found a researcher at Johns Hopkins Medical Center who wanted to study the early detection of pancreatic cancer. Determined to support that research, she launched a celebrity gala that funded the first-ever laboratory dedicated to detecting pancreatic cancer.  

Three months later, in February 1999, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) was founded, and Julie Fleshman became its first staff member. Today, Fleshman serves as the organization’s president and CEO. From its inception, it has been supported by people personally touched by this disease.  

Pancreatic cancer does not discriminate by age, gender, or race, and 99% of those diagnosed will not survive this disease. Symptoms appear too late, and the average life expectancy after diagnosis with metastatic disease is three to six months.  

This revolutionary patient-based advocacy organization, however, aims to change those statistics. PanCAN has addressed clinical initiatives, patient services, and research with the goal of finding a cure for pancreatic cancer. Both Acosta and Fleshman have inspired nationwide support of over a million members, all working to speed up the progress to end deaths from pancreatic cancer. They fund their own research grants and are creating trailblazing clinical projects that are making progress against pancreatic cancer. Their research commitment includes Early Detection Initiative studies, the Know Your Tumor® precision medicine research program, PanCAN’s Patient Registry, and the SPARK Research Data Platform.

American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts & Figures, 1999-2023

 No other pancreatic cancer organization has taken such a bold move. PanCAN provides more resources for pancreatic cancer patients, families, and caregivers than any other organization across the globe. The difference is being felt, and hope for patients with pancreatic cancer is being renewed. No one should have to face pancreatic cancer alone, and with PanCAN, they don’t.

If you would like to contact PanCAN, call them at 1.877.272.6226.