The latest edition of the NCCN Guidelines for Patients: Pancreatic Cancer is now available, providing patients and caregivers with updated information to help them better understand treatment options, ask informed questions, and participate in decisions about their care.

The Hirshberg Foundation is proud to continue its support of this important resource, ensuring that patients and families have free access to expert-developed information at every stage of the pancreatic cancer journey.

Created by leading pancreatic cancer specialists and translated into clear, patient-friendly language, the NCCN Guidelines for Patients help individuals understand complex medical information, navigate treatment decisions, and feel more confident in conversations with their healthcare team. The updated guide is available online at no cost and can also be accessed through the NCCN Guidelines for Patients and NCCN Clinical Guidelines mobile apps.

“The NCCN Guidelines for Patients are among the most valuable resources we can provide to someone facing a pancreatic cancer diagnosis,” says Amy Reiss, Director of Patient Programs at the Hirshberg Foundation. “They help patients and families understand their options, ask questions, and feel empowered throughout their care.”

What’s New in the 2026 Guidelines

The latest edition now provides updated recommendations regarding who should receive biomarker testing and molecular profiling. As precision medicine continues to evolve, these tests can help identify targeted treatment options based on a patient’s individual tumor characteristics.

Additional information has been added about staging laparoscopy, a procedure that may help determine whether cancer has spread to the lining of the abdomen before treatment decisions are made.

Several updates focus on tailoring treatment based on a patient’s overall health and ability to tolerate therapy. The guidelines now include revised performance status definitions, which are used to assess a patient’s overall well-being, functional capacity, and ability to perform daily activities. The performance status helps your care team make informed decisions on the suitability of various treatments, predict prognosis, and monitor disease progression. There are additional recommendations for patients with greater physical limitations as well.

The updated guidelines also clarify the role of maintenance therapy or the de-escalation of treatment for patients whose cancer has responded to initial treatment to keep the disease under control, minimize side effects, and help patients maintain their quality of life.

New treatment options have also been added, including:

• FOLFOX (folinic acid, fluorouracil and oxaliplatin) as a preferred second-line therapy option for certain patients when first-line therapy did not or has stopped working, or has side effects that aren’t tolerated.
• The PAXG (Cisplatin/Albumin-bound Paclitaxel/Capecitabine/Gemcitabine) regimen as a new neoadjuvant treatment approach before surgery.
• Additional guidance regarding treatment decisions following neoadjuvant therapy.
• Consideration of local treatment for metastatic disease in selected situations.
• Updated information regarding the use of subcutaneous pembrolizumab

Importantly, the updated guide also includes clearer decision points to help patients understand when a treatment regimen may be changed or repeated during second-line therapy.

In addition to clinical updates, revisions based on patient and clinician feedback have made the information even easier to understand and navigate. These improvements help ensure that patients and caregivers can find the answers they need when they need them most.

The NCCN Foundation expressed its appreciation for the partnership that makes this resource possible, “many thanks to the Hirshberg Foundation for supporting this important resource for patients and caregivers.”

At the Hirshberg Foundation, we believe that knowledge is one of the most powerful tools patients can have. By supporting the NCCN Guidelines for Patients, we help ensure that anyone facing pancreatic cancer has access to trusted information, compassionate guidance, and the resources needed to make informed decisions.

The updated NCCN Guidelines for Patients: Pancreatic Cancer are available now.

Living with pancreatic cancer can create an array of emotional and physical challenges. Fortunately, these new life difficulties can be greatly improved with the right support system in place. While family and friends can offer assistance there are many benefits to speaking with other pancreatic cancer patients and those with a shared experience. While not conventionally thought of as part of your medical team, support groups can provide a wealth of resources, tips and helpful information.

Participating in a support group online can make the difference between feeling alone and isolated versus feeling empowered and connected. Support groups can be beneficial for both the patient and the caregivers as it provides a safe space to connect with people going through comparable medical and psychological experiences. Not all support groups operate the same; some gather virtually while others are online forums where patients post questions, so take the time to find one that feels right for you.

Below are some of our partners and organizations that understand the importance of support groups for both pancreatic cancer patients and their loved ones.

• American Cancer Society provides free support services for anyone living with cancer and their loved ones. Search for support programs and services in your area.
• CancerCare provides free, professional support services for people living with cancer. They offer counseling with an oncology social worker to help cope with the emotional and practical challenges of pancreatic cancer. They also provide free online support groups for both pancreatic cancer patient and caregivers.
• Cancer Support Community offers a toll-free helpline and live web chat where anyone affected by cancer can speak with licensed counselors. Through MyLifeLine, you can create a private support webpage to stay connected with friends and family.
• WeSPARK offers an array of free support groups, from a caregivers group to a singles support group as well as in-treatment and post-treatment groups. They also offer various supplemental programs such as acupuncture, reflexology and tai chi. They advise an intake session where they review your history to better recommend programs that may be a good fit.
• Pancreatic Cancer Connections is an online social community that provides a safe space for pancreatic cancer patients and their loved ones to share their experiences, get valuable coping resources, and support one another.
• If you’re comfortable with social media, there’s a Facebook group called the Whipple Surgery Survivor Group. With patients from around the world, this vast community can be the right resource for those looking to connect with other patients on Facebook. This group does require you to have a Facebook account and posts may not be private.
• The Smart Patients Pancreatic Cancer discussion forum is an online support group for patients and caregivers dealing with pancreatic cancer. Members share help, advice and information about treatments, symptoms and side effects.
• Cancer Support Community South Bay offers a free, virtual group for pancreatic cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, and family members to build and maintain a support community from diagnosis through treatment and recovery. (Available for California residents only)
• If you’re looking to connect with other patients and caregivers, ANCAN offers a virtual peer-to-peer support group with the mission to provide all pancreatic cancer patients with a better quality of life.
• Another virtual peer-to-peer group is led by long-term survivor Tom. Tom facilitates a space for patient and caregivers to share experiences, knowledge and support. Zoom calls are every Friday from 9:00am until 10:30am PST, contact Tom for more details.

If you are a patient or caregiver with questions, contact Patient & Family Support today.

Jeanette Reedy Solano has been part of the Hirshberg Foundation throughout her cancer journey. As a member of Tom’s pancreatic cancer patient support group, she has joined us at the Symposium, Casual Sunday, and other events throughout the year.

At the 20th Annual Symposium, Jeanette shared twelve lessons she’s learned through diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. She was also recently featured in a UCLA Health article about her treatment and participation in a clinical trial at UCLA.

The principal investigators on the trial are Timothy Donahue, MD and Zev Wainberg, MD, along with Jason Link, PhD, an associate adjunct professor of surgery, all members of the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC), where the trial is being conducted and deeply connected to the Hirshberg Foundation.

Jeanette, a Glendale resident and professor of religious studies at Cal State Fullerton, underwent a 10-month odyssey before getting diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the summer of 2024. She traveled to Johns Hopkins where she was told her cancer was stage 3 and wrapped around vital veins and arteries. The oncologist she spoke with said only a lucky few in her condition made it to surgery.

“There haven’t been too many effective treatments in the past, but that might be changing somewhat now,” Dr. Donahue said in the article. “These tumors have been resistant to most chemotherapies, targeted therapies, immunotherapies, you name it. It’s why we need research.”

Jeanette recalled, “I had just gotten this terrible prognosis and I’m reeling from it. That night I had a video consult with Dr. Donahue and he’s looking at my scans, and he says, ‘I think you are actually borderline resectable and might be eligible for a trial.’ That gave me so much hope.” 

In cases where essential blood vessels are involved, the standard of care is to attempt to shrink the tumor with chemotherapy so that the patient is eligible for surgery with less risk of dangerous bleeding.

“For borderline resectable, you can’t take it out right away, but you could if you have a good response to chemo,” Dr. Wainberg said in the article. “We were asking what if we give them chemo plus these two immunotherapies, can we do even better than chemo alone?” This thinking led to a unique clinical trial conceived of and sponsored by UCLA Health rather than a drug company. The team then secured funding from the National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense.

Jeanette liked the idea of how the immunotherapies worked together. She received standard-of-care chemotherapy coupled with two experimental immunotherapy drugs to help enlist her immune system to fight the cancer.

“It’s basically like a defense and offense combination,” she said in the article. “I thought it was novel and unique, and I was really lucky to be included.” 

The immunotherapies, which have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, work to ramp up the immune system in different ways. Zimberelimab, a checkpoint inhibitor, stops cancer cells from deactivating T cells, allowing them to attack the cancer. Quemliclustat acts as a blocker for adenosine, a chemical that is enhanced in people with pancreatic cancer and can diminish the immune system’s response.

In addition to the trial, she received support services from the Simms/Mann UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology. 

“It’s not just wonderful surgeons like Dr. Donahue and scientists like Dr. Wainberg, it’s the whole package you get at UCLA, helping you navigate a life-changing diagnosis,” she said. “UCLA does a really good job of understanding all the elements of a cancer diagnosis, integrating psycho-social and even spiritual support during those first few months when you are shattered.”

After her 11 sessions of infusions ended in February 2025, she was ready for surgery. By March 2025, her tumor had gone from 4.2 to 0.33 centimeters. She returned to UCLA for an 8 ½-hour surgery to remove her tumor. The surgery resulted in a total pancreatectomy, the removal of her gallbladder, spleen, bile duct and part of her small intestine, due to the blood vessels involved and the location of the tumor. Without a pancreas to produce insulin, she is now diabetic, which is very challenging.

Dr. Donahue said that when a pathologist looked at Jeanette’s tumor under a microscope, very few tumor cells were still present. This is known as a major histopathologic response, indicating that pre-surgical treatment destroyed almost all the tumor.

“It’s an incredible outcome,” Dr. Donahue said. “With chemotherapy alone, without this combination, we would only see that very rarely. But we’re seeing it more and more with this more effective treatment. I think her prognosis is outstanding.” 

Dr. Donahue, professor of surgery at UCLA and surgical director of the UCLA Agi Hirshberg Center for Pancreatic Diseases, noted that more than 90% of the roughly 30 phase 1 trial participants were eligible for surgery, although some have not yet completed the treatment to see if they qualify. Of the patients who have gone to surgery, 43% either had no cancer cells seen under the microscope or very few.

“If you compare that to chemotherapy, that number is just 10%,” Dr. Donahue said. “It looks like there is about a four-fold improvement in the patients that are having a major histopathological response to the treatment.”

Jeanette is now cancer-free and no longer in treatment but does have routine monitoring. She has returned to teaching. She has been traveling the world, including a trip with her husband and daughter to mark one year of being cancer-free.

“We went to Iceland and saw the Northern Lights and sat in the hot springs while reveling in the beautiful world we live in, and celebrated being alive,” she said in the article. Jeanette believes clinical trials for pancreatic cancer are beginning to turn the tide and she encourages other patients she meets through her support groups to enroll. She said, “trials are critical parts of advancing treatment. There are no guarantees, but I know they’re worth it.”

Excerpts from the article referenced originally appeared on the UCLA Health website.

Pancreatitis or inflammation of the pancreas comes in both acute and chronic forms and has long been appreciated as a risk factor for developing pancreatic cancer. While common and in most cases mild, severe acute pancreatitis can be fatal due to severe inflammation causing local damage that can have serious systemic consequences. The ability to predict which patients who initially present with acute pancreatitis will develop severe disease is currently limited. With the adoption of AI, new models may help to more accurately predict patients who will develop severe and life-threatening disease, and in the future may be able to help predict those that may develop pancreatic cancer.

Peter Hegyi, MD, PhD and Tamas Gonda, MD, were awarded a collaborative Hirshberg Foundation Seed Grant in 2023 to evaluate the use of AI and machine learning to predict which patients will develop severe acute pancreatitis and to predict those who may develop pancreatic cancer. Dr. Hegyi, Professor and Director of the Institute for Pancreatic Diseases at Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary, and Dr.Tamas Gonda, Associate Professor of Medicine in Gastroenterology at New York University Grossman School of Medicine, sought build a database of well characterized acute pancreatitis patients across NYU and Semmelweis University to develop a model to predict acute pancreatitis severity. They also set out to build a multi-institutional coalition to identify cases and imaging where pancreatic cancer was diagnosed with 2 years of acute pancreatitis to then extend this deep learning model to predict which acute pancreatitis patients may later develop pancreatic cancer. 

The team developed and validated a deep learning model that predicts acute pancreatitis severity using contrast-enhanced CT scans. Their model was trained on over 10,000 CT studies and then fine-tuned on over 500 additional cases where severity outcome was known. In both internal and external data sets, the new deep-learning model outperformed established prediction tools. The model was then used to analyze a cohort of images from patients with known outcomes (also called a retrospective analysis) and it was able to identify 73% of patients that went on to develop severe acute pancreatitis. These results support the continued validation of early, automated risk triage for acute pancreatitis. A recent paper, Deep learning-based prediction of acute pancreatitis severity from abnormal CT with multicenter external validation, was published in the May 2026 journal Radiology Advances.

Current and future research will focus the new machine learning algorithms on images from patients with acute pancreatitis who later develop pancreatic cancer. This will train the programs to identify image-based changes in the hopes of generating a predictive model to stratify these patients’ cancer risk at the time of acute pancreatitis onset. The ability to use image-based biomarkers for this high-risk population will lead to earlier pancreatic cancer diagnoses and better treatment options. 

Early detection remains one of the greatest opportunities to change outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients. The Hirshberg Foundation is committed to funding bold and innovative research that makes early detection possible. Better diagnostic approaches offer the greatest opportunity for successful treatment and improved survival, yet too many patients are still diagnosed at advanced stages. AI-driven imaging represents one of many promising approaches with the potential to change how pancreatic cancer is found and treated. Continued funding is critical to move these discoveries from the laboratory into real-world clinical care. The power to detect pancreatic cancer sooner helps expand treatment options and save lives.