Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month

With volunteers of the Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Network attending, First Selectman Peter Tesei proclaimed November as Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month in Greenwich on Thursday.

At the regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen, Tesei presented the proclamation to volunteers Ruth Shu and Nina Carranza, who also is a Stamford Hospital nurse whose husband died from the disease five years ago.

"We support your efforts for research and finding a cure for this insidious disease," Tesei said. Pancreatic cancer will be diagnosed in nearly 44,000 patients nationwide in 2012, making it the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths. There isn't a cure for pancreatic cancer which claims 74 percent of its victims within a year of diagnosis.

It is estimated that there will be 510 deaths from pancreatic cancer in Connecticut this year.

The Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Network is the only national patient advocacy group that serves the pancreatic cancer community in Greenwich and Connecticut.