Let’s Win Pancreatic Cancer: A Partner for Patients and Care Teams

The pancreatic cancer community has a dynamic partner that is changing the way patients and caregivers navigate this disease. Let’s Win Pancreatic Cancer is an advocacy organization that works with patients, providers, and researchers to share the latest information and treatment options for pancreatic cancer. Let’s Win’s goal is to inform, enable, and educate patients and caregivers to find the latest and best treatment options.

A Diagnosis That Led to Action

In May 2014, public relations executive Anne Glauber was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer. She and her family were stunned and devastated. They knew they had to move fast, but they didn’t know where to start. That overwhelming fear and confusion became the genesis for Let’s Win. While Anne ultimately lost her battle against pancreatic cancer in 2017, she dreamed that everyone who came after her would win theirs—by gaining more time to spend with their loved ones and/or being cured.

Information Is Power

Let’s Win helps patients with pancreatic cancer learn from experts, manage their disease, and improve their quality of life. With the resources found on the Let’s Win website, which is published in both English and Spanish, patients are empowered to make informed decisions about their treatment options. But the platform isn’t only for patients. For the multidisciplinary cancer care team, Let’s Win provides medically vetted information about the latest treatments that may be vital to patient care. The website also gives those in cancer research a place to share information with other professionals within the Let’s Win network. The faster and wider this information can be disseminated the more lives it can positively impact.

In It to Win It

Let’s Win launched in 2016 with 15 articles. The platform has seen exponential growth since then, with more than 700 expert-reviewed stories, featuring over 200 patients, 200 medical professionals, and 85 institutions, now published on the website. In November 2022, Let’s Win 2.0 was launched to facilitate better usability—ensuring that every person who accesses the website finds it easy to obtain the information they need.

Let’s Win has sections dedicated to disease management, symptoms and stages, as well as cutting-edge research. There are messages of hope and encouragement through survivor videos and stories. There are also animations that explain how clinical trials work and how to find clinical trials, a glossary of terms, and other vital resources that can help patients and their caregivers better understand and manage their diagnosis. Further, Let’s Win leads collaborative PancChats every month on critical topics, such as detection, diagnosis, and treatment. New articles and stories are published on the site in English and Spanish, sent to a growing list of subscribers, and shared via Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. 

Due to these efforts and the transformative impact they have on the lives of patients with cancer, Let’s Win received the first Biden Cancer Initiative FIERCE Award for leadership through exemplary and awesome purpose (LEAP) in 2018.

Advancing Health Equity

Let’s Win strives to reach a diverse community of people that are affected by pancreatic cancer. To reach underrepresented patients, the organization has developed partnerships with groups like the Elvin Howard Sr. Pancreatic Cancer Advocacy Foundation, National Minority Quality Forum, and National Alliance for Hispanic Health. These strategic partnerships allow Let’s Win to provide its resources to these organizations and host webinars that are geared to their audiences.

The organization’s efforts to reach underrepresented patients with pancreatic cancer have been supported by the Spanish-language version of the Let’s Win platform. It has had more than 110,000 visits since 2018, while the corresponding Spanish newsletter has steadily grown over the past 5 years. But that’s not enough.

Let’s Win is constantly seeking out more ways to win this fight in partnership with organizations and institutions that will reach underrepresented populations. Most patients with pancreatic cancer are treated at community cancer programs and practices. It is important that these patients are informed of Let’s Win and the resources it provides.

A Message of Hope

The missing link in the journey of many patients with pancreatic cancer is hope. Hope is the foundation that Let’s Win is built on, and hope continues to sustain it. The goal of Let’s Win is for all patients to find the information, treatment options, and hope they need for their pancreatic cancer journey.

“Over the past six years, Let’s Win has changed the narrative around pancreatic cancer and has established itself as a trusted source of information,” says Cindy Gavin, executive director of Let’s Win. “But our goal remains the same: to reach all newly diagnosed patients and provide them with the tools they need to navigate a difficult journey.”