Peter Allen speaking with colleague

Duke Cancer Institute Announces New Pancreatic Cancer Center

Published

The Duke Cancer Institute (DCI) has launched a multidisciplinary pancreatic cancer center dedicated to delivering the highest level of care for patients with pancreatic cancer. The center is led by Executive Director Peter Allen, MD, and Deputy Directors Daniel Nussbaum, MD, and John Strickler, MD.

The DCI Pancreatic Cancer Center seeks to improve long-term outcomes for patients with or at risk for pancreatic cancer through practice-changing research focusing on prevention, early detection, and treatment.

"While tremendous progress has been made in treating pancreatic cancer, we recognize that existing standard approaches are simply not good enough," Nussbaum said. "The mission of the DCI Pancreatic Cancer Center is to leverage our clinical and research expertise in order to develop the next generation of therapies for this disease. Our goal is to offer our patients not only standard treatments, which are critically important, but also novel therapies that might improve their chance for cure."

Areas of focus include expanding genomic and molecular targeted therapy options, developing the next generation of immunotherapy treatments, and creating novel early detection technologies for pre-malignant or early-stage pancreatic cancer.

Patients will have access to innovative clinical trials and individualized treatment protocols through the center.

"The DCI Pancreatic Cancer Center unites scientists, clinical-investigators, and clinicians toward the shared goal of improving pancreatic cancer survival," Strickler said.

Written By

Carolyn Dean

Carolyn Dean

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