Leading Nonprofit’s Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month Campaign Highlights Importance of Knowing the Risks, Symptoms, and Early Detection Progress Needed to Improve Survival

Watch Maria Menounos’ PSA HERE

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (November 1, 2023) – This November, celebrated media character, actor, tv, and “Heal Squad” podcast host, Maria Menounos, is lending her voice in help of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network’s (PanCAN) annual Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month marketing campaign, launching immediately. This 12 months’s marketing campaign, titled “Change The Course,” underscores the significance of recognizing the important thing dangers and signs for early detection of pancreatic most cancers. Menounos shall be featured in a public service announcement (PSA) calling consideration to understanding early indicators and signs and advocating in your well being. Additional digital and broadcast PSAs will run all through the month, highlighting survivor and caregiver tales that present how early detection can change the course of pancreatic most cancers and lengthen the probabilities of survival. The marketing campaign will even highlight the most recent early detection initiatives and outreach to higher-risk communities.

Pancreatic most cancers is the third main reason for cancer-related deaths within the United States and is on observe to turn into the second main trigger. The five-year survival fee of simply 12% calls for rapid motion to save lots of lives. Because signs are sometimes imprecise and mimic different diseases or circumstances, most sufferers are recognized when they’re already within the late levels of the illness. Finding a pancreatic tumor early when it may be surgically eliminated is crucial for survival. Currently, there isn’t any normal screening take a look at to detect pancreatic most cancers early the way in which there may be for different main cancers like mammograms for breast most cancers or colonoscopies for colon most cancers.

Earlier this 12 months, Menounos revealed that she had a neuroendocrine tumor on her pancreas, a uncommon type of pancreatic most cancers, and efficiently underwent surgical procedure to take away it. Recognizing her signs together with diarrhea and excruciating belly ache in addition to her persistence in advocating for her well being after preliminary scans failed to search out something irregular, performed a pivotal function in her early prognosis. She had surgical procedure on February 16, 2023 when her physician eliminated the tail of her pancreas, spleen, 17 lymph nodes and a large fibroid that was rising quickly. Despite the bodily and psychological toll of her journey, she has shifted her focus to aiding others in searching for solutions to their well being issues via her podcast, “Heal Squad,” and now, as a PanCAN ambassador for this month’s Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month marketing campaign.

“I wanted to partner with PanCAN because I want to help spread awareness and help people understand that early detection, paying attention to your body and the signals it’s giving you is critical. You have to be the CEO of your own health,” stated Menounos. “I’m honored to share my story and use my voice to raise awareness and ensure that others have the opportunity for early diagnosis, and to support those on this journey. Together, we can change the course of this devastating disease and give hope to those who need it most.”

“We are so grateful to Maria and our other PanCAN ambassadors who are so bravely sharing their stories to raise awareness about the importance of early detection for survival,” stated Julie Fleshman, JD, MBA, PanCAN’s President and CEO. “In addition to educating the public about the risks and symptoms of pancreatic cancer, PanCAN will continue to make a significant investment in research to find an early detection strategy for this disease.”

On November 16, World Pancreatic Cancer Day, PanCAN will host a free, digital occasion with a panel of particular visitors for a dialog concerning the newest in early detection methods for pancreatic most cancers together with why pancreatic most cancers is notoriously tough to detect at an early stage of illness and why progress on an ordinary screening device has been gradual in comparison with different varieties of most cancers; how advances in synthetic intelligence and imaging know-how stand to influence how most cancers is detected and recognized; what high-risk communities ought to find out about managing their threat and being proactive about their well being; and the function PanCAN performs in driving analysis ahead, together with PanCAN’s groundbreaking Early Detection Initiative. Register without spending a dime at pancan.org/wpcd2023.

PanCAN Patient Services offers free, in-depth and personalised assets and data on pancreatic most cancers. For anybody who could expertise signs, they’ll obtain a conversation guide to finish and convey to their healthcare supplier for a dialogue. To educate individuals about tips on how to scale back their threat of pancreatic most cancers, PanCAN created a brand new useful resource, 7 Steps to Reduce Your Risk, which shall be distributed throughout the nation via native PanCAN volunteer associates.

For extra details about the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and its pressing mission to save lots of lives, go to pancan.org or comply with PanCAN on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

About the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network
The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) leads the way in which in accelerating crucial progress for pancreatic most cancers sufferers. PanCAN takes daring motion by funding life-saving analysis, offering personalised affected person companies and making a group of supporters and volunteers who will cease at nothing to create a world through which all pancreatic most cancers sufferers will thrive. For 18 years in a row, PanCAN has earned a Four-Star Rating from Charity Navigator – the best ranking a company can obtain. This ranking designates PanCAN as an official “Give with Confidence” charity, indicating sturdy monetary well being, ongoing accountability and transparency.

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Media Contact:

Julie Vasquez, Senior Director, Public Relations, Pancreatic Cancer Action Network
Direct: 310-697-9129, Email: jvasquez@pancan.org

Stephanie Berman, Vice President, Smithhouse Strategy
Direct: 917-617-5667, Email: stephanie@smithhousestrategy.com