Since 1998, the Hirshberg Foundation has partnered with CancerCare to help families navigate the financial and emotional challenges that follow a pancreatic cancer diagnosis. With your generosity, we provide bi-annual grants that fund one-time financial assistance for low-income patients, alongside CancerCare’s free counseling, education, and case management. We are pleased to share our mid-year results and announce that our grant has been renewed for the second half of 2025, so more patients can stay on track with care.

Why Financial Assistance Makes All the Difference

A pancreatic cancer diagnosis often brings unexpected costs that strain family budgets. Even with insurance, expenses for transportation, co-pays, home care, childcare, and nutrition support add up quickly. These mounting expenses can force families into difficult trade-offs, choosing between basic needs or staying on track with treatment. Through our partnership with CancerCare, we step in with practical help so patients can focus on treatment, well-being, and time with loved ones.

The National Cancer Institute reports that average medical costs for cancer patients exceed $43,000 in the first year after diagnosis and can climb to more than $109,000 in the final year of life. For families already coping with the physical and emotional toll of pancreatic cancer, these numbers are staggering.

That’s why every grant matters. For a patient, this support can mean reliable transportation to chemotherapy, support for in-home care or prescriptions. Thanks to our community, this partnership offers not only financial aid but also dignity and hope when it’s needed most.

Stories of Strength: Real Patients, Real Impact

Behind every grant is a story of resilience, determination, and hope. With your support, CancerCare and the Hirshberg Foundation are helping patients focus on healing while easing the financial strain of pancreatic cancer.

Names have been changed to protect confidentiality.

Mid-2025 Program Impact

From January 19 to July 31, 2025, CancerCare awarded 65 grants, averaging just over $200 per grant. Support helped cover transportation, treatment co-pays, home care, imaging, and other essential needs. Patients served came from 30 states and Washington, D.C., with the largest groups in New York, Texas, New Jersey, and North Carolina. Most patients were 41–64 or 65+, and services were available in multiple languages, including English (86%) and Spanish (11%).

The Hirshberg Foundation CancerCare Grant

Thanks to our donor community, the Foundation has renewed funding with CancerCare for the remainder of 2025. This program offers limited financial assistance for transportation, pain medication, childcare, home care, and other urgent needs for eligible low-income patients. CancerCare also provides free support groups, workshops, co-payment assistance, case management, and counseling in English and Spanish.

If you or someone you love needs assistance, please contact CancerCare to learn about eligibility and available services. If you would like to make this lifeline possible for more families, please consider a gift to the Hirshberg Foundation today.

Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, with a five-year survival rate of 13%. Survival remains low in part because most patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage, when treatment options are limited. For patients with early, localized tumors, surgery, often combined with chemotherapy, offers the only potential cure. Yet more than 80% of these patients experience recurrence, highlighting the urgent need for new strategies.

Over the last decade, immunotherapies have revolutionized the treatment of cancers such as melanoma and lung cancer. These therapies harness the body’s own immune system to detect and destroy tumor cells. Unfortunately, pancreatic cancer has been largely resistant to this approach.

A recent, early-stage clinical trial, AMPLIFY-201, has shown promising results in reducing relapse by treating patients with a cancer vaccine after surgery. The phase I clinical trial was co-led by Dr. Zev Wainberg, a gastrointestinal medical oncologist at the UCLA Agi Hirshberg Center for Pancreatic Diseases. Dr. Wainberg has also presented on advances in chemotherapy at the Agi Hirshberg Symposium on Pancreatic Cancer.

The study enrolled patients with pancreatic cancer or colorectal cancer (CRC) who had undergone surgery but still showed minimal residual disease (MRD). MRD is when no tumors are visible on scans but tumor cells or elevated biomarkers such as CA19-9 are detectable in the blood. Patients in the trial received the ELI-002 2P vaccine, which contains small peptides designed to train the immune system’s T cells to identify and destroy the remaining tumor cells to prevent relapse.

Unlike many cancer vaccines that are personalized for each patient after the tumor has been biopsied and sequenced, ELI-002 2P is an “off-the-shelf” treatment. The vaccine used peptides to activate T cells to identify mutant versions of a protein called KRAS. Mutated KRAS is a driver mutation for 50% of all colorectal cancers and more than 90% of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDACs) tumors. The vaccine specifically targets two specific KRAS mutations, G12D and G12R, which have been found in a high percentage of tumors. This shared vulnerability allows one standardized vaccine to be used across many patients.

The vaccine’s design is also novel. Each peptide is linked to a lipophilic tail that binds albumin, a protein in the blood. The albumin allows the peptides to “hitchhike” directly to lymph nodes, where T cells are activated. The peptides, along with an adjuvant, get taken up by dendritic cells, which present the peptides and prime T cells for attack. Once activated, these T cells circulate through the body, ready to recognize and eliminate cancer cells harboring KRAS mutations.

In the AMPLIFY-201 trial, 25 patients with pancreatic or colorectal cancer received six vaccine doses over eight weeks, followed by a rest period, then four booster doses. The vaccine was well tolerated: nearly half of patients reported only mild side effects such as fatigue, injection-site soreness, or muscle pain. Importantly, no patients experienced serious immune-related toxicities such as Cytokine Release Syndrome (CRS). CRS is an acute systemic inflammatory response characterized by fever and multiple organ dysfunction.

The immune responses were striking. After more than 19 months of follow-up, 68% of patients developed KRAS-specific T cell responses linked to reductions in circulating tumor DNA. Of these patients, 11 have shown no evidence of new tumor growth on imaging, and six achieved complete clearance of tumor biomarkers. Even more promising, many patients had T cells that recognized additional tumor proteins beyond the KRAS mutations targeted by the vaccine, a phenomenon called epitope spreading, that further broadens their immune defense against cancer cells.

While larger studies are needed, these early results suggest that cancer vaccines, both “off-the-shelf” and personalized, may finally offer a way to reduce relapse rates for pancreatic cancer patients after surgery. For a disease long resistant to immunotherapy, AMPLIFY-201 represents a hopeful advance and an important step toward more durable outcomes.

Kroger’s Community Rewards Program ensures that your next trip to the grocery store will make a greater impact, fuel progress, and provide hope for patients and families facing pancreatic cancer. We invite you to join us as we never give up in finding a cure for pancreatic cancer by turning your grocery run into a powerful act of generosity.

There are countless ways to support pancreatic cancer research, and some of those opportunities have the power to transform the simplest everyday tasks into actual donations. Grocery shopping is one of the easiest ways to give back, and every dollar makes a difference in our fight for better treatment options, earlier detection, and longer lives.

Whether you’re new to Kroger’s Community Rewards program or signed up in the past, today is the day to select the Hirshberg Foundation as your charity of choice and make a gift that keeps giving. All you have to do is take the first step. Here’s how to get started:

As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of our Seed Grant Program, we’re proud to highlight a new generation of researchers leading the charge to cure pancreatic cancer. Among them is Dr. Evan Abt, a 2022 Seed Grant Awardee whose research is helping to reshape the future of treatment. This year, we’re honored to welcome Dr. Abt as the Honorary Medical Chair for the 28th Annual LA Cancer Challenge and the captain of the UCLA Health team.

Dr. Abt is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at UCLA. His research explores the intersection of cancer metabolism and immune regulation to uncover how pancreatic cancers evade detection by the immune system.

Supported by a Hirshberg Foundation Seed Grant, Dr. Abt’s research identified a key metabolic mechanism that allows pancreatic tumors to suppress immune responses. This research was conducted in collaboration with his UCLA mentors, Dr. Tim Donahue, Chief of Surgical Oncology and Dr. Caius Radu, Vice-Chair, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology. Their studies revealed that pancreatic cancer cells produce excessive amounts of a metabolite called adenosine, which dampens the immune system’s ability to attack the tumor.

With an expertise in the crosstalk between metabolism and immune responses, Dr. Abt applied his Seed Grant funding to uncover and target this adenosine process. This work has opened the door for new combination therapies that include adenosine inhibitors in combination with checkpoint inhibitors to enhance immune responses against pancreatic cancer.

“By understanding how tumors adapt metabolically and immunologically, we can design smarter therapies that overcome those defenses,” says Dr. Abt. “This research has been a deeply collaborative effort among UCLA scientists and clinicians. The support from the Hirshberg Foundation allows us to work together to tackle this devastating disease.”

Dr. Abt’s impact extends beyond the lab; he is also committed to mentoring the next generation of pancreatic cancer researchers. One of his students, Ella Dunderdale, received support from the Hirshberg Foundation to continue performing research over the summer during her academic break. “The talent, creativity, and dedication of our junior scientists is truly remarkable,” Dr. Abt notes. “I’m incredibly thankful for the Hirshberg Foundation’s support of their training.”

Dr. Abt will bring his passion and dedication to the LA Cancer Challenge this October, rallying the UCLA Health team and helping us raise critical funds for pancreatic cancer research. By supporting early-career scientists like Dr. Abt, our Seed Grant Program continues to fuel the breakthroughs that will one day lead to a cure. 

In 2012, Gerri Weiner joined the Hirshberg Foundation community after her father was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. That year, she walked in the LA Cancer Challenge not as a patient, but as a loving daughter and caregiver, hoping for answers, connection, and hope.

Nearly a decade later, in 2021, life came full circle. During a routine CT scan for an unrelated issue, Gerri received news that changed everything: doctors had spotted a shadow on her pancreas. With no symptoms and a normal CA19-9 level, the diagnosis came as a shock, especially given her family history.

Within three weeks, Gerri underwent a successful Whipple surgery. Four weeks later, she began a six-month chemotherapy regimen of FOLFIRINOX. Now, nearly four years post-surgery, she’s graduated to yearly checkups, and her scans are “unremarkable,” a word she now embraces with deep gratitude.

“Sometimes it feels like my pancreatic cancer journey never happened,” Gerri shares. “But I’ll never forget the village that got me through it: my husband, my kids, my family, my friends, and the Hirshberg Foundation. It really does take a village.”

This year, Gerri will return to the LA Cancer Challenge, this time as a survivor and the 2025 Honorary Starter. She’s a vibrant reminder that early detection, groundbreaking research, and community support can lead to brighter outcomes.

Her message is one of resilience, progress, and unwavering hope: “Lean on your people. Trust your doctors. Believe in your strength. And know that you’re not alone.”

To those just beginning their pancreatic cancer journey, and to every caregiver walking beside them, Gerri’s story is a beacon. The number of survivors who are living, breathing, and thriving is growing. And thanks to people like Gerri, so is the belief that change is not just possible, it is already happening.

Since 2005, our Seed Grant Program has fostered an environment for research to bloom. As we mark 20 years since our first cohort of grantees, it is more exciting than ever to look back and see all that is being accomplished.

In 2010, the Hirshberg Foundation awarded a Seed Grant to Dr. David Gius at a critical juncture. Having just transitioned from a decade-long position at the NCI’s Radiation Oncology Branch to an extramural academic role, Dr. Gius faced the challenge of building a new research program with limited resources. The Seed Grant arrived at exactly the right time. It provided essential support to reignite his research and build momentum in his new laboratory.

Today, Dr. Gius holds multiple leadership positions at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio. As Assistant Dean for Research and Associate Cancer Center Director at the Mays Cancer Center, he champions institutional research growth, mentorship, and collaboration. Through the Francisco Cigarroa Research and Grant Writing Academy, he has helped mentor junior faculty and strengthen grant writing submissions, contributing to an institutional rise in NIH funding from $73 million in 2020 to $120 million in 2025. His commitment to training and guiding the next generation of researchers is a testament to the exponential power of a Seed Grant; it is an investment in not only the project but the career of the recipient, with the hope that it will flourish.

Dr. Gius leads multiple projects funded through the National Institute of Health (NIH) and Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) which focus on mitochondrial biology, metabolic disruption, and lineage plasticity in treatment-resistant cancers. His translational work brings the field closer to understanding how therapies fail and how we might overcome those failures.

Reflecting on the Seed Grant, Dr. Gius shared, “The Hirshberg grant was so very helpful, it allowed me to really ramp up research. I have been so lucky in my career and the Seed Grant was a launching point.”

This is exactly what Seed Grants are meant to do, ignite progress where it might otherwise stall. But progress at the bench must reach beyond discovery. To deliver breakthroughs to patients, we must fund more than the start, we must fund the path forward.

As we celebrate 20 years of launching scientific careers, now is the time to sustain and expand this mission. Greater investment will ensure that ideas like Dr. Gius’s continue to grow, translate into breakthroughs, and reach the patients who need them most.