The Man Who
Kept America Laughing
continued from page 47
says Mayer. “We really don’t know
why. And that makes it one of the
toughest and most difficult cancers
to treat.”
Inadequate treatment options
and poor survival rates seem to
have contributed to underwhelming
research attention to the disease:
Few survivors live long enough
to speak out about their needs.
“That’s been changing slowly
though,” says Mayer. “There are
three big groups out there now:
the National Pancreas Foundation,
the Lustgarten Foundation for
Pancreatic Cancer Research, and
PanCAN, the Pancreatic Cancer
Action Network. And they’ve been
instrumental in getting funding for
research.”
Due to lobbying and awareness
efforts by advocacy organizations,
the last decade has seen large
increases in NCI funding and
private donations for pancreatic
cancer research, agrees Julie
Fleshman, the president and chief
executive officer of PanCAN, which
will celebrate its 10th anniversary
this year. PanCAN’s budget has
grown from about $200,000 to
about $8.5 million during the last
10 years, while NCI funding for
pancreatic cancer has increased
from $17.5 million in 1999 to about
$73 million in 2007.
“But pancreatic cancer is still
the most underfunded of all the
leading cancer killers,” Fleshman
says. “There has been an upward
trend, though, and we’re hopeful
for the future.”
The additional awareness and
research funding are beginning to
yield results. Last year a research
team at Johns Hopkins University,
in Baltimore, catalogued about
20,000 genes from different
pancreatic cancers in a massive
pancreatic cancer genome
project. The researchers found
1,163 genetic mutations, many of
them in biochemical pathways, or
processes, that are known to be
involved in cancer development.
(See page 11 to read more about
this research.) “What we’ll do
now is start looking at these
pathways and seeing where it is
we have to intervene to really start
seeing improvements in patient
survival,” says Elizabeth Jaffee,
an oncologist at Johns Hopkins’s
Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive
Cancer Center.
Researchers are also working
on vaccines that manipulate
the immune system into better
attacking pancreatic cancer cells,
says Jaffee. Meanwhile, several
clinical trials are under way, aimed
at identifying drug combinations
that are more effective than
currently available chemotherapy
regimens.
Such progress offers hope,
though turning the research into
practical therapies takes time,
says Jaffee. “A lot of this work
is promising, but in a lot of ways
we’re still at a basic science
stage when looking at pancreatic
cancer,” she cautions. “But there’s
certainly reason to hope that
we’ll really see that translate
into improved survival time for
patients. Science is moving faster
than it has in history.”
A QUIET EXIT
Benny died on Dec. 26, 1974, just
five months after his first visit
to the hospital. Thousands of
mourners attended the funeral.
Bob Hope gave the eulogy. “For
a man who was the undisputed
master of comedy timing, you
would have to say that this was the
only time Jack Benny’s timing was
all wrong,” Hope said. “He left us
too soon.”
By all accounts, Benny’s
real personality was the exact
opposite of his vainglorious stage
character. He was known to do
shows gratis to benefit worthy
causes and he raised millions
of dollars for symphonies and
musician pension funds.
“I don’t think Jack ever had a
true inner sense of his own worth,”
his wife recalled in her biography.
“He knew people liked him, but I
don’t think he ever realized just
how much people adored him. …
loved him. And he was the most
patient, gracious man I ever met.
Whenever he went, if a fan stopped
him, he’d always stand and chat as
long as they wanted to talk.”
CR | Page No. 63 | www.CRmagazine.org
