Council Declares November Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month in Cedar Grove

The Cedar Grove Council issued a proclamation declaring November to be Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month in the township, and presented it to a survivor of the disease who has dedicated his life to helping others affected by it.

During the presentation, Cedar Grove Mayor John Zunic Zunic spoke of some of the grim statistics of the disease that despite claiming tens of thousands of American lives each year, receives only a fraction of federal cancer research dollars.

"In 2011, 44,030 Americans will be diagnosed with the disease, and 37,600 will die. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Seventy-four percent of patients die within the first year, 94 percent die within the first five years. Pancreatic cancer only constitutes 2 percent of the National Cancer Institute's federal research funding, a figure far too low given the severity of the disease and its mortality rate," the mayor said.

Acknowledging the troubling facts about the disease, Zunic said revealing such harrowing statistics is part of what spreading awareness is all about.

"Sometimes to bring something to light you have to show the dark side of it," he said.

Michael Weinstein, pancreatic cancer survivor and advocacy coordinator for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, accepted the proclamation from Zunic at the Nov. 7 Council meeting, and spoke briefly to the assembled crowd.

"I am a survivor of pancreatic cancer. I was diagnosed in 2005 and told my cancer was inoperable and that I only had a short time to live. I'm still here six years later, and have been cancer free for the past four years," he said.

Despite his success so far in battling the deadly disease, many others are not as lucky.

"Unfortunately all too often we only hear about this most lethal disease when someone famous is diagnosed with it," Weinstein said, noting recent high-profile pancreatic cancer deaths including Patrick Swayze, Steve Jobs, and Nobel Prize winner Dr. Ralph Steinman, who died three days before he won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his immunology work on the disease, for which he used himself as a guinea pig.

"In the past few years, this disease has claimed some of the best minds in America. The only way we'll start to make any progress against this disease is through public awareness. That's why these proclamations are so valuable to the pancreatic cancer community."

For Councilman Robert O'Toole, the proclamation struck a personal chord. His son, Brian, died in May of pancreatic cancer, just six days after learning he had the disease.

"I want to thank you personally," O'Toole told Weinstein.

The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network is the only national organization dedicated to giving hope and support to patients of the disease through an approach of research, patient advocacy, support, education and outreach.

For more information, visit them on the web at pancan.org.