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Independent Living Assisted Living Memory Care Skilled Nursing Celebrating Life Every Day TM 72 April 26 • 2018 jn EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY $20 million gift to launch the Henry Ford Pancreatic Cancer Center. H enry Ford Health System announced a new $20 mil- lion gift to launch the Henry Ford Pancreatic Cancer Center, which will focus on global collaborations to develop new methods for the early detection of pancreatic cancer — a devastating disease with a 5-year sur- vival rate of only 8 percent. The gift is made possible by support from an individual donor who wishes to remain anonymous. This $20 million gift will help to establish partnerships between Henry Ford and leading national and inter- national organizations to identify means to detect pancreatic cancer at an earlier stage, with best-in-class collaborations and technological advancements. “We are grateful for this transfor- mational gift that will allow Henry Ford to bring the best minds in the world together to shine an important light on pancreatic cancer. It marks a crucial step in advancing pancre- atic cancer research with the goal of increasing survivorship for patients diagnosed with this terrible disease,” says Wright Lassiter III, president and CEO, Henry Ford Health System. This gift builds on the tremendous momentum created by Detroit business- man and philanthropist Mort Harris, who donated $20 million to Henry Ford in December 2016 in honor of his late wife, Brigitte, to back the Brigitte Harris Cancer Mort Harris Pavilion in Detroit, opening in 2020. The largest individual gift in Henry Ford’s history, Harris’ dona- tion is part of a $40 million package to support the building project and three specific program areas: precision medicine, brain cancer and pancre- atic cancer, which Brigitte battled for almost two years before she passed away in 2016. While incredible advanc- es in cancer diagnosis and treatment have been made and some types of cancer are now curable, pancreatic cancer remains nearly a universally fatal diagnosis, according to Steven N. Kalkanis, M.D., medical direc- tor, Henry Ford Cancer Institute and chair, Department of Neurosurgery. “One of the challenges is pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed late, general- ly at an advanced stage, making it dif- ficult to treat,” he said. “If we are going to move the needle, we need a global crowd-sourced effort to diagnose pan- creatic cancer earlier and give patients a fighting chance for survival.” An estimated 53,670 people are diagnosed each year with pancreatic cancer. There is currently no effective screening tool available to diagnose pancreatic cancer early. Most people do not experience any symptoms of pancreatic cancer until the cancer has progressed to an advanced stage. David Kwon, M.D., direc- tor of Surgical Oncology, Henry Ford Cancer Institute, and direc- tor, Multidisciplinary Pancreas Clinic at Henry Ford Hospital, will help to oversee the Henry Ford Pancreatic Cancer Center. He notes that the scale and oppor- tunity of this global collaboration will provide significant benefit and efficiencies that will change the land- scape of pancreatic cancer through its focus on earlier detection and clinical trials to advance treatment. “Never has there been a greater momentum in the fight against pancreatic cancer and, unfortunately, the incidence of pancreatic cancer will only continue to rise,” Kwon said. “To effectively fight pancre- atic cancer, we need to work to find solutions to problems that have eluded clinicians and researchers to date, while embracing a culture of inno- vation and collaboration.” The $20 million gift will establish a Multi-Institutional Pancreatic Consortium, led by Henry Ford. The global consortium will serve to drive the research initiatives with focus on early detection, data analytics, trans- lational research, precision medicine and clinical trials. An endowed director’s fund will support the hiring of a leading pan- creatic cancer clinical leader and a research leader for the Henry Ford Pancreatic Cancer Center as well as an administrative director. •