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Pancreatic cancer detection hits Michigan for November awareness month
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Sheila Sky Kasselman.
Cancer research hopes to take a giant step forward this fall in the fight against pancreatic cancer. With November the designated National Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, Sky Foundation, Inc. is working to create greater public recognition of the deadly disease with the grim prognosis that has lacked a cure. It has hovered at pretty much the same level of instances and mortality since the 1970s.
The prevailing hope is to raise funds toward its demise.
Today, less than two percent of the National Cancer Institute's federal research budget is spent on the pancreas. That keeps its cancer research stagnating at the same rate that anti-breast cancer progress was in the 1930s.
That is, in part, because a lot of cancer monies are being used for battle and not detection.
Sunday, November 8, Sky Foundation kicks off its first big fundraiser at The Village Club in Bloomfield Hills. Established by a rare two-year survivor of pancreatic cancer, local resident 68-year-old Sheila Sky Kasselman, the enterprise was begun in 2008 after her doctors with the Henry Ford Health System were encouraged by her response to surgical removal and treatment. They asked her to transition from patient to partner, joining them to raise $500,000 for vital research.
That partnership works with the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University, where researcher and WSU professor Dr. Michael Tainsky is working on blood screening that offers a five-fold survival improvement.
Following her initial diagnosis after a sudden weight loss in 2007, Kasselman was shocked to learn that there is no early detection for this deadly form of cancer. Most recently acknowledged for taking the lives of actor Patrick Swayze and beloved former Detroit Pistons' coach Chuck Daly, pancreatic cancer is one of the hardest cancers to pinpoint. It usually isn't uncovered until in its late stages, according to recent statistics from the American Cancer Society.
"Pancreatic cancer spreads rapidly and silently," Kasselman says on her website at www.skyfoundationinc.org. "In my case, it was detected early - but it is seldom detected in an early phase."
Both Pistons' coach Chuck Daly and actor Patrick Swayze died from pancreatic cancer.
Kasselman's cancer was diagnosed within the first four months, which may sound like a lifetime for a spreading disease, even though the detection was quick by comparison to that of other patients.
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of U.S. cancer deaths, and maintains the unwelcome record for holding the highest mortality rate. Only five percent of cancer patients with it live more than five years, with 95 percent dying within five years of discovery; 76 percent die within the first year of diagnosis.
An average of 116 new cases are discovered daily, and in 2009 alone, 42,270 Americans will be diagnosed with it and 35,240 will die. In the next six weeks when November's awareness month concludes, more than 8,000 new cases will be diagnosed.
"Finding a blood test for detection is critical," she said in a subsequent Free Press interview. As the foundation moves toward raising sufficient seed money, $100,000, the hope is that scientific dollars will follow.
"I'm one of the very few lucky ones," Kasselman said. "And I just need to get out there and spread the word. "In the world of cancer research, it is charitable dollars targeted to pancreatic cancer that will help attract top scientific research in this field."
Sky Foundation's website states that pancreatic cancer is hard to catch early because there are not immediate symptoms. Usually they are vague or go unnoticed, and include yellowing of the skin and eyes, pain in the abdomen and back, weight loss and fatigue.
Also, because the pancreas is a gland between the stomach and spine, it's hidden behind other organs, causing health-care providers to miss any tumors during routine exams. It is an integral part of the digestive process as the juices it produces help break down food and hormones that assist in controling blood sugar levels.
A specially designed silver pendant and slide can be bought to help fight pancreatic cancer at www.skyfoundationinc.org.
Therefore, those more at risk are long-term diabetics, chronic pancreatitic sufferers, and smokers - as well as those with certain hereditary disorders.
Cancer of the pancreas is hard to treat, but possible medical answers lie in surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.
Kasselman was the former owner of Sky Financial Services, LLC in Bloomfield Hills, where she provided investment advice for a host of clients. She's served as an active community volunteer in the metro-Detroit area, and chaired numerous fundraisers for arts agencies and crisis centers.
Her hope is that within three to five years, there will be an early-detection test available.
Three people die from pancreatic cancer per hour. Seventy-nine per day. Five hundred fifty-nine per week. Two thousand four hundred and twenty-three per month. Twenty-nine thousand, eight-two per year.
That's a real mix of numbers, no matter how you arrange them, but they need to be numbers in the win category now.
For Sky Foundation Brunch info for November 8, contact them at: (248) 978-9845. Individual tickets or table sponsorships are still available.
For more info:
http://www.freep.com/article/2009904140334
http://www.skyfoundationinc.org/PressRelease.pdf
http://www.skyfoundationinc.org/index.html
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