A Message From Our PanCAN CEO

With the ongoing spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), I want to personally reach out to you as a valued member of our PanCAN family. We feel a tremendous responsibility to continue to monitor and respond to the rapidly evolving situation. Our top priority is the health and well-being of you, our constituents in communities across the country and our staff team members.

Despite these unprecedented times, pancreatic cancer affects thousands of patients and families every day, and our urgent mission does not slow down or stop. Due to the nature of our work as a service-based organization, we will continue to put patients first, and we are here to serve you.

Patient Services Are Available
While the majority of PanCAN staff is working remotely, please know that we are doing our best to ensure that there is no disruption to our Patient Central call center.

Patients and caregivers can still contact Patient Central by calling 877-2-PANCAN (877-272-6226) Monday – Friday, 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. PT or by emailing patientcentral@pancan.org to receive free, in-depth and personalized resources and information about pancreatic cancer, including the impact of COVID-19 on this vulnerable patient population and what precautions patients should be taking.

All other Patient Services are still available as well, including PanCAN's Know Your Tumor® service, Patient Registry, Survivor & Caregiver Network and more.

Virtual Is The New Purple
At this time, all in-person March and April PurpleStride events have been canceled. We are closely monitoring recommendations from the CDC and local health officials and will make determinations about the status of events in May and beyond in the coming days.

We will continue to provide these updates to affected constituents via email, social and purplestride.org/updates.

Please consider supporting PanCAN by becoming a virtual strider. Together, we can turn the internet purple and continue to fight for those battling the world's toughest cancer.

Annual Advocacy Summit
We have postponed registration for our annual Advocacy Summit (formerly known as Advocacy Day) that is scheduled to take place on June 14-16. We will update you on the status of that event in late April.

However, you can still take action from home – right now. Make your voice heard by reaching out to your Senators today and asking for them to support $10 million for the pancreatic cancer research program in the Department of Defense to accelerate new treatment options and early detection strategies.

Our Patients Need Your Support Now More Than Ever
We can't do this without you. As we navigate the unchartered days and weeks ahead together, your unwavering support is inspiring and so deeply appreciated. We remain determined to pursue our ambitious goals and to never stop fighting to improve outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients. Thank you for everything that you do for our mission every day. I am immensely grateful.

With gratitude,


Julie Fleshman, JD, MBA
President and CEO
Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN)