Project Purple is excited to be an official charity partner of the 2020 United Airlines NYC Half Marathon on Sunday March 15th in New York City. This will be our 6th year participating as an official charity partner and this year’s team will be one of our largest ever in our history with this event.
One of the runners for Project Purple on this team is Dr. Diane Simeone, Director of the Pancreatic Cancer Center at the Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Health. Dr. Simeone is leading the charge in collaboration with Project Purple to establish the international collaborative Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection Consortium (PRECEDE) Consortium. The PRECEDE Consortium’s mission is to transform the landscape of pancreatic cancer risk assessment, early detection, and prevention and to increase the 5-year survival rate from 9% to 50% within the next 10 years. The PRECEDE Consortium is the largest effort in the world for patients who are at high-risk for developing pancreatic cancer, currently with 28 sites established in the U.S. and 6 international sites. This will be the first half marathon for Dr. Simeone with Project Purple: “It is so inspirational to work with Project Purple and all the other runners to change the game for pancreatic cancer. Project Purple is funding the PRECEDE Consortium, a highly innovative, large scale collaborative research program to tackle early detection and prevention of pancreatic cancer. I can’t think of a better cause! “ — Dr. Simeone.
Dr. Simeone will be running with her husband, Dr. Theodore Welling, who is a prominent surgeon and Director of the Liver Tumor Program at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center. They will both be joined by Dr. Bryson Katona, who is the director of Gastrointestinal Cancer Genetics Program at Penn Medicine and Dr. Shachar Laks from Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv Israel. Along with NYU Langone Health, Penn Medicine and Sheba Medical are also partners in the PRECEDE Consortium. Please join us in running this inspirational marathon as we make great strides together against pancreatic cancer!
