By Ed Rider, University of Nebraska Foundation

“You have pancreatic cancer.”

These four words are among the most devastating a person will ever hear. The difficulty of diagnosing cancer of the pancreas early makes it one of the most lethal and aggressive types of cancer. Today, only about 10% of patients survive beyond five years.

Each year, more than 60,000 people in the United States are faced with a similar diagnosis. 

Researchers and clinicians with Nebraska Medicine and its academic partner, the University of Nebraska Medical Center, believe pancreatic cancer can be detected in its earliest stages. That belief is so strong that in 2018, the University of Nebraska Board of Regents approved establishing the Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence at the Nebraska Medicine | Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center.

James Armitage, MD, and Shirley Young both lost their spouses to pancreatic cancer. Nancy Armitage died 16 months after her diagnosis. Jim Young, former chair of Union Pacific Railroad, died in 2014, two years after his diagnosis.

“It’s hard to describe how much this disrupts your life,” says Dr. Armitage, the Joe Shapiro Professor of Medicine in the UNMC Division of Oncology and Hematology, and a cancer doctor with Nebraska Medicine. “I went to talk to Shirley’s family about developing a pancreatic cancer program, and she understood the situation.”

The result was the development of the Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence. 

Kelsey Klute, MD, a gastrointestinal cancer doctor with Nebraska Medicine, says UNMC’s world-class researchers and clinicians are working diligently to find new ways to detect pancreatic cancer earlier through clinical trials and emerging early detection programs.

“Clinical trials are our best way to improve survival,” Dr. Klute says. “Not only for patients diagnosed in the next five or 10 years, but also for patients facing pancreatic cancer today,” Dr. Klute says.

Through ongoing research, Nebraska Medicine is exploring innovative approaches to treatment, including novel combinations of existing therapies and new strategies aimed at improving outcomes and extending survival.

Support for this work is critical. Continued investment allows researchers and clinicians to advance early detection, expand clinical trials and bring new hope to patients and families facing pancreatic cancer.