The UCLA Agi Hirshberg Center for Pancreatic Cancer Diseases has been nationally acknowledged as a Clinical and Academic Center of Excellence by the National Pancreas Foundation (NPF). This esteemed designation is awarded to premier healthcare facilities that focus on multidisciplinary treatment of pancreas disease, with specific attention to providing the best possible outcomes and improved quality of life for patients.

Dr. Timothy Donahue, member of our Scientific Advisory Board, Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology, and Vice Chair for Cancer Surgery in the Department of Surgery at UCLA, along with Dr. V. Raman Muthusamy, Medical Director of Endoscopy at UCLA Health and Professor of Clinical Medicine at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, spearheaded the efforts and extensive auditing process. An approved NPF Center of Excellence for Pancreatitis and Pancreatic Cancer must meet the criteria developed by a task force made up of invited subject matter experts and patient advocates. The criteria includes having the required expert physician specialties such as gastroenterologists, medical and radiation oncologists, pancreas surgeons, and interventional radiologists, along with more patient-focused programs such as a pain management service, nutrition, and psychosocial support.

“It is an honor to have the Hirshberg Center for Pancreatic Diseases designated as an NPF Center of Excellence for pancreatic cancer,” said Dr. Timothy Donahue. “We are focused on providing innovative, whole-body care for our patients and the NPF Center designation will help further distinguish us as a location dedicated to the needs of those impacted by pancreas disease.”

Dr. Muthusamy added, “This designation not only identifies us as a leader in pancreatic cancer, but in all pancreatic diseases. The more we are able to deepen our understanding of the pancreas, the better equipped we are to provide care and treatment at the earliest stages, leading to better patient outcomes.”

The National Pancreas Foundation Center Program helps patients with pancreas disease find a vetted specialist at an institution that will provide a high-quality, multidisciplinary approach to their care. The over 140 Centers of Excellence also benefit from a partnership with the NPF. Founded in 1997, the National Pancreas Foundation provides hope for those suffering from pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer through funding cutting-edge research, advocating for new and better therapies and providing support and education for patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals.

“We are thrilled to expand our NPF Centers of Excellence Program to better serve the needs of patients suffering from pancreas disease,” said David Bakelman, CEO of the National Pancreas Foundation.  “The NPF Centers of Excellence Program is one of the pillars of NPF, and we are looking forward to working with our current and new Centers.”

“This award is a true achievement for our entire team, it represents the exceptional patient care we are delivering across the board,” said Dr. O. Joe Hines, Interim Chair of the Department of Surgery, UCLA Health Surgical Director for Perioperative Services, and Director of the UCLA Agi Hirshberg Center for Pancreatic Disease.

The Hirshberg Foundation is honored to receive this designation. One of the pillars of our mission is to “create a premier Pancreatic Cancer Center where all needs of pancreatic cancer patients can be met in one location with the most advanced treatment options.” Being recognized as an NPF Center of Excellence helps us achieve that goal and advances our quest towards a cure.

This summer, our Foundation commemorates 25 years of extraordinary scientific discoveries in the field of pancreatic cancer while providing support services for patients around the world. Thanks to our incredible community, the Hirshberg Foundation mission and our message of hope has reached thousands of families every year. Every milestone we surpass has led to real-world results because of your generosity and dedication. We have checked off nearly every goal we set out to achieve when we first began this journey but that last piece of the puzzle, finding a cure, is why we will never give up.

Watch Our 25th Anniversary Video →

The mission statement and the vision of the Hirshberg Foundation remains the guiding light for all of the work we do.From the establishment of the Agi Hirshberg Center for Pancreatic Diseases at UCLA to becoming a resource for patients at the most critical time of their lives; our programs have given survivors a chance to thrive.  Our goal was to build a community that could answer this pivotal call-to-action, and today, that very community is helping to fund new and innovative research projects, educational Symposiums, and patient webinars. All of these accomplishments are steps towards our ultimate goal of finding a cure and eradicating this disease.

In 1997, when our Founder, Agi Hirshberg, began paving a way forward for this organization, she knew that it would take collaboration and hard work, “I wanted to help UCLA and their pancreatic program but they said they didn’t have one. Of course, my next sentence was, “you have one now, help me build it”. She began this journey understanding just how relentless pancreatic cancer could be. It was a time when medicine offered the bare minimum; research was underfunded while patients’ lives were fated for an uphill battle with few resources. Today, the Agi Hirshberg Center for Pancreatic Diseases serves pancreatic cancer patients every day and a community of brilliant scientists and doctors are propelling research forward.

As we approach this remarkable milestone, we want to thank you and recognize all of the hard work that our supporters have contributed over the years. The vision for the Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research may have begun with one family, but it has grown into a global community. 25 years later there’s so much hope, there’s so much work being done, there’s so much progress that has been made and all of those things are things to celebrate!

With Gratitude,
Lisa Manheim
Executive Director

Learn more about what we’ve achieved over 25 years

25th Anniversary →
Patient Support & Resources →
Seed Grant Program →
Hirshberg Community Events →

UCLA along with two other UCs, as part of the UC Pancreatic Cancer Consortium, has been awarded a total of $1.5 million from the Canopy Cancer Collective to help improve patient outcomes. Canopy joins the long-standing efforts of the Hirshberg Foundation in advocating for and advancing patient care.

The UC Pancreatic Cancer Consortium (UCPCC) brings together the five UC campuses with medical schools – Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco – to unite pancreatic cancer scientists and clinicians in order to accelerate the progress and impact of their work. The vision to improve the lives of persons diagnosed with pancreatic cancer by translating innovative research into improved clinical care dovetails with the Canopy’s goal to empower pancreatic cancer patients with new hope, treatments, and options. Agi Hirshberg, Founder and President of the Hirshberg Foundation, is honored to preside as the Chair of the Patient Advocacy Council for  the UCPCC.

UC Los Angeles, UC San Francisco and UC San Diego each received a $500,000 three-year grant for the implementation of integrated multidisciplinary care to improve the outcomes and well-being for all patients with pancreatic cancer. Their additional support builds upon the Hirshberg Foundation’s work to center patient well-being as an integral part of the cancer treatment process, for without psychosocial care, true wellness cannot be achieved. Canopy Cancer Collective aims to provide the best available care for pancreatic cancer patients by connecting multiple institutions to foster collaboration among the top care-providers, coordinate impactful patient services and deliver innovative, comprehensive, and effective care to their patients.

Timothy Donahue, MD, chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, is the Physician Champion leading the project through the Hirshberg Center for Pancreatic Diseases, along with other great pancreas institutions across the country. This grant will expand upon and deliver more coordinated care in the Hirshberg Center for Pancreatic Diseases’ Westwood IPU clinic and ultimately throughout the entire UCLA Health network.

Through this initiative, UCLA plans to improve and standardize pancreatic cancer care by focusing on nutrition, palliative care, genetic testing, clinical trial participation, quality of life, and patient education. One goal is to expand germline testing services to all pancreatic cancer patients in the UCLA Health Network, which has already seen a marked increase in referrals from 2019. Another area of interest is nutrition, a topic we know is crucial and front-of-mind for patients and families. As part of the Canopy Cancer Collective, one goal is to provide nutrition support for all pancreatic cancer patients at UCLA. To that end, the IPU now includes a nutritionist on staff to provide nutrition assessment and intervention through the pre-operative and post-operative phases of surgery.

The other main objective of the Canopy Cancer Collective is to ensure that all pancreatic cancer patients in the UCLA Health Network, extending as far north as San Luis Obispo to Laguna Beach in the south, receive the same exceptional level of care established at the Hirshberg Center for Pancreatic Diseases. One aspect of this is the Clinical Quality Improvement Database, allowing doctors and staff to know in real-time every patient who is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. This allows those patients to receive genetic testing, nutritional support, clinical trial information and more.

We are honored to have the Canopy Cancer Collective join the Hirshberg Foundation’s work to improve patient care and are excited to see pancreatic cancer providers collaborating to give patient new hope. The Canopy Cancer Collective Pancreatic Learning Health Network, funded through the 1440 Foundation, aims to help cancer centers deliver comprehensive, coordinated care to people with pancreatic cancer. These exciting collaborative projects are creating improved treatment options and better patient outcomes for all.

As we celebrate spring and the blooms to come, we are looking back at seeds planted through our Seed Grant Program, and are optimistic about the progress being made in pancreatic cancer research. Our 2019 Seed Grant cohort faced a difficult year for conducting research, establishing their labs and providing updates. We are catching up with these great scientists to share their progress and advances in pancreatic cancer research.

Steven R. Van Doren, PhD, a 2019 Seed Grant recipient at the University of Missouri has provided an update on his research including a published review on the importance of drug development that targets the protein-cutting enzyme MMP-7.

Recently published in Biochemical Society Transactions, Dr. Van Doren’s review explores the current research and understanding of the protease matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP-7). It is known that MMP-7 is secreted by tumor cells and that high levels in circulation correlate with poor prognosis and limited survival of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). MMP-7 is required for the early acinar-to-ductal switch that leads to pancreatic tumorigenesis in mice, is present throughout tumor progression, and promotes tumor cell metastasis (spread of cancer to other areas of the body). In addition, high MMP-7 expression appears to be a marker of poor survival rates and may be predictive of unresectable tumors.

One area of research into treating pancreatic cancer is enhancing response to chemotherapies in order to increase surgical candidacy and prevent relapse post-surgical resection. MMP-7 protects cells from programmed cell death by targeting death signaling proteins from the surface of tumor cells. This appears to be one of the mechanisms by which pancreatic tumor cells are able to resist chemotherapy. Twenty years ago it was predicted that blocking MMP-7 could make pancreatic tumor cells more sensitive to chemotherapeutics. Recently, an anti-MMP-7 monoclonal antibody was shown to increase the susceptibility of several pancreatic cancer cell lines to chemotherapeutic drugs, by increasing their apoptosis (cell death) and decreasing migration.

Thanks to funding from the Hirshberg Foundation, Dr. Van Doren was also able to connect with Dr. Rolf Brekken at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, a specialty center for investigations of pancreatic cancer using mouse models. Together, they have begun the early stages of drug screening and evaluation.

We are hopeful that this research brings progress to the treatment options available for pancreatic cancer. As Dr. Van Doren wrote, “I am grateful for the support from the Hirshberg Foundation to help enable this research. I am optimistic that targeting MMP-7 will advance treatment options” for all pancreatic cancer patients. It is thanks to your support that our momentum towards a cure continues.

Read the complete article →

The Hirshberg Foundation is excited to welcome a new Symposium sponsor, GRAIL, LLC, a company at the leading edge of early detection. Welcoming leading medical professionals in the field of pancreatic cancer to our Annual Symposium on Pancreatic Cancer allows our patients, caregivers and families to learn about critical and groundbreaking advances. GRAIL has joined the medical community’s efforts to empower patients to detect cancer early with their Galleri® test. We are excited to share innovative advances that offer an opportunity to detect cancer earlier and save lives.

Galleri is a multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test; it detects signals found in DNA that cancer cells shed into the bloodstream. GRAIL’s innovative testing with Galleri has detected 50 types of cancer through a simple blood draw. Galleri allowed Jim, who was featured in a NBC nightly news story,  to detect pancreatic cancer at Stage II. Testing and continued early detection research broadens our understanding of pancreatic cancer and brings us closer to the goal of regular cancer screenings.

The ultimate goal of early detection is to save lives as early as possible, screen people at-risk, and empower our communities with the necessary tools to achieve better outcomes. Advances in early detection not only impact the progression of disease, it can also decrease the financial burden many patients face.  “Preventing cancer in the first place or detecting it early is the best way to reduce many costs associated with cancer treatment—patient out-of-pocket costs, health care payer costs, and indirect costs.” shares the American Cancer Society, Cancer Action Network.

As a Symposium sponsor, GRAIL representatives will be available to answer questions at the Symposium and discuss this technology one-on-one with patients and families in attendance.

What you should know:

• It can detect many cancers that are not commonly screened for today, to allow for earlier treatment.
• Today, 71% of cancer deaths are caused by cancers not commonly screened for.

Information about Galleri:

• Early cancer detection Testing with ease.
• Can be easily incorporated into a routine healthcare visit.
• Actionable results if a cancer signal is found, the results can point to where in the body the cancer is coming from with high accuracy to help your healthcare provider guide your next steps.

Important Galleri Safety Information

The Galleri test is recommended for use in adults with an elevated risk for cancer, such as those aged 50 or older. The Galleri test does not detect all cancers and should be used in addition to routine cancer screening tests recommended by a healthcare provider. Galleri is intended to detect cancer signals and predict where in the body the cancer signal is located. Use of Galleri is not recommended in individuals who are pregnant, 21 years old or younger, or undergoing active cancer treatment.

Results should be interpreted by a healthcare provider in the context of medical history, clinical signs and symptoms. A test result of “Cancer Signal Not Detected” does not rule out cancer. A test result of “Cancer Signal Detected” requires confirmatory diagnostic evaluation by medically established procedures (e.g. imaging) to confirm cancer.

If cancer is not confirmed with further testing, it could mean that cancer is not present or testing was insufficient to detect cancer, including due to the cancer being located in a different part of the body. False-positive (a cancer signal detected when cancer is not present) and false-negative (a cancer signal not detected when cancer is present) test results do occur. Rx only.  For more information about Galleri, visit www.galleri.com.

Spring is bustling with a renewed energy and calls to action; we’re ready to turn the next corner and beat pancreatic cancer once and for all! For every positive impact we’ve had in the scientific and medical field, there is also a family in need of our support, resources and referrals. We are a community that understands this disease must be fought on many fronts. From our upcoming Symposium to new research applications, your generous support is what allows us to fund vital programs and fight alongside our patients, families and researchers. So, let’s get ready for another exciting year of Hirshberg Foundation events that will raise awareness for pancreatic cancer communities near and far. Check out our upcoming events and what we’ve already accomplished in 2022!