UW Multidisciplinary Surveillance Program for Early Detection of
Pancreatic Cancer
Surveillance Program
Contacts & Donations
A team of doctors at the UW has developed a
multidisciplinary surveillance program for the early detection of
pancreatic cancer and its precursors in patients with a familial
predisposition for pancreatic cancer. This surveillance program is
the first of its kind in the world. The approach requires the
expertise and dedication of specialists who are trained in pathology,
endoscopy and surgery of the pancreas. These specialists at the UW
are among only a handful of physicians worldwide with expertise and
experience in this arena of medicine. We are now able to identify
patients who have pancreatic pre-cancer and warrant surgical
intervention, to prevent invasive cancer and cure them of their early
disease. At present, almost all symptomatic pancreatic cancer is
advanced and incurable when diagnosed. In hereditary pancreatic cancer
we have shown that pre-cancer or early cancer diagnosed while
asymptomatic is curable.
UW researchers are keeping pace with and in fact advancing the
frontiers of clinical care. The genes that can cause pancreatic cancer
are being sought. This will help further define which family members are
affected. When a genetic test to diagnose hereditary pancreatic cancer
is discovered, it may also prove useful in the more common
non-hereditary types of pancreatic cancer. Epidemiologic studies at the
UW have uncovered risk factors, such as smoking and exposure to dry
cleaning fluids, that can dramatically influence the cancer risk of
patients who have a positive family history. Similar environmental
factors may be found in the more common non-familial pancreatic cancers.
Exciting basic research is ongoing to develop even better methods of
early diagnosis, prevention and treatment.
Contacts & Donations
More than ever, your donations to our ongoing pancreatic cancer
research are needed. To make a donation or to discuss ways of donating,
please contact Roberta Fraese at rof@medicine.washington.edu or Julia
Ruvelson at Ruvelson@u.washington.edu:
Roberta O. Fraese
Manager of Operations, Division of Gastroenterology
Department of Medicine
1660 S. Columbian Way
Box 358280
Seattle, WA 98108
(206) 277-5079 - tel
(206) 764-2147 - fax
rof@medicine.washington.edu
Julia S. Ruvelson
Director of Development
Medical Affairs Development
1325 Fourth Avenue, Suite 1600
Seattle, WA 98101-2506
(206) 543-8208 - tel
(206) 685-9889 - fax
ruvelson@u.washington.edu
|
