More Than Just Purple: Recognizing Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month

This is the sixth and final blog from Let’s Win Pancreatic Cancer. To find out how sharing stories from pancreatic cancer survivors can educate and inspire other patients, read their fifth blog here.

Every November, the world turns purple for patients with pancreatic cancer, survivors, and advocates, in honor of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month. Pancreatic cancer advocacy organizations all over the world spread the word with landmark buildings and monuments lit in purple, special news reports about patients and treatments, and of course by wearing purple. The high point of the month is World Pancreatic Cancer Day, which is marked by a social media campaign to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer. The goal is to create a greater awareness of symptoms and risk factors, which may subsequently lead to earlier diagnoses and more positive outcomes for patients. 

The Current Landscape 

An estimated 64,000 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year. According to the National Cancer Institute, that’s about 13.3 new diagnoses per 100,000 individuals. The rate is higher for Black Americans at 16.2%.

Compared to more common cancers such as breast, colon, and lung, these numbers are relatively small, but the reality is grim. Because a diagnosis for pancreatic cancer often comes so late, the survival rate is little more than 12%. This makes pancreatic cancer the third deadliest cancer of our time, behind only lung and colon cancers.

Strength in Numbers

There are many organizations around the world that help patients with pancreatic cancer through the provision of support and community, by funding research, or guiding them through treatment. In 2014, these organizations came together for the first World Pancreatic Cancer Day, designated as the third Thursday of November. This year it falls on November 16. 

Two years later, in May 2016, the World Pancreatic Cancer Coalition (WPCC) was launched. The WPCC is a global collaboration that raises awareness of pancreatic cancer by sharing best practices, leveraging expertise, and amplifying the voices of their many member organizations. Today there are more than 100 member organizations from 40+ countries on 6 continents.

The WPCC provides resources that anyone can use to raise awareness about pancreatic cancer on a small scale like through personal social media accounts, and on a large scale, by advocating on social media and lighting up local landmarks in purple during November. All these types of publicity—big or small—bring attention to the disease.

Let’s Win which launched a month before the first WPCC meeting, is proud to be a charter member. Let’s Win’s founding executive director Cindy Gavin, sits on the WPCC steering committee and has chaired the annual meeting since 2018. “It is impressive to see so many different groups come together for 1 goal,” she says. “Everyone realizes that there is power in 1 voice sharing the same message.”

Expanding Your Reach

While not everyone can illuminate their local landmarks with purple lights, there’s much that cancer care teams can do beyond treatment. A good place to start is with the resources that are available to everyone for free on the Let’s Win website: 

• Use our downloadable brochures. Make these available in your office and/or on your healthcare system’s website.
• Share the newly-diagnosed roadmap. It is challenging for patients to figure out the next steps after they’ve been diagnosed. They can easily lose sight of critical details once they’ve left your office. A simple guide on the What to Do If You Are Newly Diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer page walks patients through the steps they can follow as they start treatment and move forward.
• Start with clinical trials. Patients with pancreatic cancer and their oncologists should investigate clinical trials from the very start. A guide explaining the importance of Clinical Trials and Treatment is available on the Let’s Win website.
• Share inspiring stories. Let’s Win has published more than 200 Survivor Stories and videos, which contain rich and diverse personal accounts of symptoms, diagnoses, procedures, cutting-edge treatments, clinical trials, mental health support, and overall best practices. Each story contains teachable moments that can benefit all who read them. These stories and videos also provide hope and inspiration to patients who may not see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Above all, refer your patients to the Let’s Win website so they can explore the latest articles, research updates, stories, and more. One of the platform's best features is that it’s available to everyone at any time. So, patients and their loved ones have access to the most comprehensive cache of vital pancreatic cancer resources in the time and space that are comfortable and useful to them.

Wear Purple on World Pancreatic Cancer Day

Of course, wearing the color purple still goes a long way but it’s not enough. There is more we must do throughout November (and all year long) to truly make an impact on those who have the disease now and in the future. You never know when a conversation can be started with someone whose life could eventually be saved. 

More From Let's Win

• Let’s Win Pancreatic Cancer: A Partner for Patients and Care Teams 
• Pancreatic Cancer: Risk Factors, Symptoms and Early Diagnoses 
• Pancreatic Cancer: Why Clinical Trials Should Be a Patient’s Starting Point 
• A Road Map for Newly Diagnosed Patients with Pancreatic Cancer 
• Every Story Counts: Survivors Educate and Inspire Patients With Pancreatic Cancer