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Home > Patient Guide > News/ Breakthroughs
News
The Pancreas Center and Pancreatic Cancer Action Network Partner to Raise Over $300K During PurpleStride Manhattan Fundraising Walk
The Pancreas Center was proud to partner with Pancreatic Cancer Action Network to co-sponsor the first annual Pancreatic Cancer Action Network PurpleStride Manhattan fundraising walk in Riverside Park on November 8, 2009.
The hard work and generosity of all of those involved from volunteers to walkers and sponsors helped make PurpleStride Manhattan the most successful inaugural walk in PanCAN history with over 2,000 walkers and over $300,000 raised for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.
Even mother nature played a part in PurpleStride's success by supplying near seventy degree weather and blue skies which provided the perfect backdrop for an event which created awareness, raised funds and enabled participants to meet others who share the same goal: to find a cure for pancreatic cancer.
View Pictures
Ask an Expert: Genetic Counseling & Testing
Muzzi Mirza Pancreatic Cancer Prevention & Genetics Program Director, Dr. Harold Frucht, is featured in the Lustgarten Foundation's "Interview with an Expert" Winter 2009 publication on genetic counseling and testing.
The article defines genetic testing and genetic counseling and explains how they might be useful to individuals concerned with or at high risk for developing pancreatic cancer."
Download the article.
The Pancreas Center was invited by the Manhattan Affiliate of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PANCAN) to the second annual Cookin' Up a Cure food tasting event, which took place on May 19, 2009 at the Frederick P. Rose Hall Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Attendants enjoyed culinary delights prepared by some of New York City's finest chefs and bid on items in auctions where all proceeds went to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.
Our own Medical Director, Dr John Chabot was a guest speaker and our basic science researcher, Dr Gloria Su was also honored.
The Pancreas Center Team provided brochures and information about the Pancreas Center and Muzzi Mirza Prevention and Genetics Program.
It was wonderful to take part in an event for patients, family members, and supporters for research and spreading awareness of pancreatic cancer.
See pictures.
Media Consult Pancreas Center Specialists on High Profile Cases
In a quote provided for a May 29, 2009 ABC national news segment, Dr. Chabot called pancreatic cancer the silent killer because there are often few, if any symptoms.
The segment focused on actor Patrick Swayze's battle with pancreatic cancer and unfounded rumors that the actor had died.
Following the announcement on February 5, 2009, that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg was being treated for pancreatic cancer, Dr. John Chabot interviewed with ABC News and CBS Evening News, Dr. John Allendorf, with USA Today and CBS Newsradio 88, and Dr. Beth Schrope with CNN.
During the week of January 5, 2009, Pancreas Center gastrointestinal specialist Dr. Harold Frucht was cited in articles on ABC News.com and the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) regarding the health of Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
Dr. Frucht said that, based on available information, Jobs did not require a Whipple procedure to remove a large portion of the pancreas.
Instead, he said, it was more likely that Jobs's surgeon performed an enucleation — a procedure in which the tumor is scooped out of the pancreas, leaving the organ largely intact.
On January 6, 2009, Business Week ran an article extensively quoting responses of Pancreas Center oncologist Robert Fine, MD, on the same topic.
Also on January 6, ABC News profiled actor Patrick Swayze's experience with metastatic pancreatic cancer, including a comment from Pancreas Center surgeon Dr. John Chabot, "One of the most important problems is we tend to diagnose it late," said Dr. Chabot.
"Fifty percent of people, when they're diagnosed, the cancer has already spread to other organs, and there's almost no chance of cure with current treatments."
 Inherited gene mutations play a role in up to 25% of cases of pancreatic cancer.
There is up to a 20-fold increase in the risk of pancreatic cancer in individuals with a family history of the disease.
At least five distinct cancer syndromes account for a number of inherited pancreatic cancers.
The Muzzi Mirza Pancreatic Cancer Prevention and Genetics Program of the Pancreas Center at Columbia University, under the leadership of Harold Frucht, MD, Program Director, analyzes family and personal medical history and provides recommendations for pancreatic cancer screening, genetic counseling, and testing as appropriate.
Ask an Expert: Managing Your New Life After Surgery
Pancreas Center nurse practitioner Nicole Goetz is featured in a Q&A with Virginia Cravotta, Award-winning journalist and Senior Affairs Correspondent for News 12 Long Island.
The article provides detailed information about pancreas surgery from the hospital experience to the recovery process to seeking out psychosocial support over the long term.
Download the article.
Dr. Chabot Interviewed by ABC News.com
Dr. Chabot was interviewed for a June 24, 2008, ABC News.com article regarding life expectancy of pancreatic cancer patients in general, and the apparent health of actor Patrick Swayze and Apple CEO Steve Jobs, both of whom have been treated for pancreatic cancer.
"Averages don't predict the outcome for any one individual," said Dr. Chabot, who emphasized that overall health, emotional wellbeing and fitness levels may play a role.
Dr. Fine Praised in Newsweek Feature
Dr. Robert Fine was featured in a June 14, 2008 Newsweek magazine feature about the human connection between patients and their oncologists.
The article reported on Dr. Fine, his clinical ingenuity, and his considered and compassionate care of Pancreas Center patient Linda Goodman, 58, who was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer in 2006.
Dr. Fine, utilizing an innovative chemotherapy regimen has been credited for increasing Ms. Goodman's survival by 50% beyond the average prognosis for pancreatic cancer that spreads to the liver, as in the case of Ms. Goodman.
Ms. Goodman praises Dr. Fine's kindness and compassion.
Her gestures of thanks range from magnanimous to small acts of consideration.
With her family, she has raised $185,000 in support of his laboratory.
Meanwhile she brings him his favorite foods, a corned-beef sandwich and a chocolate éclair, on her chemotherapy days.
The article quotes Dr. Fine as saying, "I want my patients to live their life living. . .I don't want them to liver their life dying."
Family and Friends of Muzzi Mirza Support Pancreas Center with $2M Gift
Family and friends of the late Muzzi Mirza, have made gifts and pledges totaling more than $2 million in support of the Muzzi Mirza Pancreatic Cancer Prevention & Genetics Program at the Columbia University Pancreas Center.
The campaign that established the program was led by Mr. Mirza's wife, Susan, and his former business associates, Stephen Berger, Paul Barnett, Douglas Hitchner, William Hopkins, Brian Kwait, and Douglas Rotatori.
Muzzi Mirza, an investment banking entrepreneur who emigrated to the U.S. from Lahore, Pakistan in 1958, succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2007.
 John A. Chabot, MD, Director, Pancreas Center Patients visiting NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center will frequently see and hear the term "multidisciplinary center."
While the significance of the term may go unrecognized by some, the presence of such centers can be vital, if not lifesaving, for conditions requiring comprehensive care across multiple specialties.
Such is the case with the Pancreas Center.
Directed by John A. Chabot, MD, FACS, this special team treats patients with pancreatitis, pancreatic and duodenal cancer, as well as precancerous conditions of the pancreas and duodenum.
For patients with pancreatic tumors, clinical management has become increasingly complex, with the advances in surgical, oncologic, and endoscopic techniques.
At NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is not only vital to providing surgeons with crucial information regarding treatment options for patients with pancreatic diseases, but it is also expanding therapeutic options.
Thirty-five percent of people who develop pancreatic cancer are considered inoperable because the cancer invades blood vessels surrounding the pancreas, such as the portal vein.
At many hospitals, patients are turned down for surgery even though their cancer has not spread to other organs.
Surgeons at the Columbia University Pancreas Center have developed special surgical protocols that enable them to successfully operate on the vessels to completely remove patients' cancer.
Insulinomas are rare tumors of the pancreas that produce too much insulin.
Usually less than two centimeters in size, insulinomas are benign (noncancerous) in 90% of cases.
Without treatment, however, the extra insulin causes patients' blood sugar to drop, and can cause symptoms such as weakness, tremors, anxiety, hunger, headache, and in severe cases, coma or even death.
In a recent case, surgeons at the Columbia Pancreas Center were able to spare a patient from having to undergo major surgery by devising a completely novel solution.
The Columbia University Pancreas Center, nationally known for its superior surgical procedures, innovative chemotherapy treatment, and pioneering prevention program, routinely relies on PET imaging (positron emission tomography), to guide treatment decisions.
For tracking pancreatic cancer and its metastases to other organs, say Columbia faculty, PET's sensitivity is often superior to any other type of imaging procedure.
Pancreatic cancer is known to resist chemotherapy, forcing oncologists to use second and third lines of defense.
To meet this challenge, Robert Fine, MD, Herbert Irving Associate Professor of Medicine, an oncologist who works with the Pancreas Center to treat its patients, has developed several multiple-drug chemotherapy regimens.
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