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Mission: Cure Blog

Nov 29
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Scary Medical Procedures Can Cause PTSD in Kids with Pancreatitis

By Pediatric Pancreatitis

I see you. I see the struggle of chronic illness, I see the deeply intertwined web of psychological stress and reactions of the body, and I see the impact of the “care” provided by the medical system. As a fellow in pediatric gastroenterology, I have spent the last few years at the bedsides of my patients, many of whom are living with the ebbs and flows of chronic pancreatitis. I have witnessed a medical system that repeatedly imposes stressful and potentially traumatic practices on kids and their families. I became interested in understanding the trauma caused by medical care and…

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Nov 21
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Managing Chronic Pain in Pancreatitis

By Blog, Blog, Blog, Blog, Blog, Blog, Blog, Blog, Blog, Pain Management, Patient Resources, Pediatric Pancreatitis
Key points: •   Chronic pain from pancreatitis takes a major toll on patients and their loved ones. •   To effectively treat chronic pancreatitis pain, we need to address the symptoms as well as the impact of pain on patients’ lives.  •   One piece of the solution is self-management, which involves education, lifestyle changes, pain coping skills, and emotional and social support. •   Computer and smartphone technologies can be used to teach self-management to patients who lack access to interdisciplinary pain facilities. •   There are self-management apps specifically for pancreatitis pain and clinical trials for children and adults to determine how...
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Mar 25
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EPI and Pancreatic Enzymes: Expert Doctor Answers Patient Questions

By Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency, Patient Resources, Patient Resources, Patient Resources, Patient Resources, Patient Resources
Dr. Steven Freedman of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School Dr. Steven Freedman, MD, Ph.D., a worldwide expert on pancreatic disease and cystic fibrosis, presented on Mission: Cure’s Pancreatitis Patient Webinar on Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency (EPI) and Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy (PERT). EPI is one of the symptoms of pancreatitis. For a more comprehensive overview of EPI, please read this article.  Pancreatic enzymes are a confusing but critically important part of chronic pancreatitis treatment. If you missed the webinar, you can watch it here:  We had so many questions during the webinar that we could not get...
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Jan 11
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Genetic Testing for Pancreatitis: What We Know Now

By Topics, Topics, Topics

As a researcher and clinician, I’m incredibly excited by advances in our understanding of pancreatitis and their potential to help pancreatitis patients. Pancreatitis patients suffer terrible pain, along with other symptoms, and are often frustrated at the lack of effective treatments. But today, thanks to advances in genomics (the study of genes and their function), we’re on a path toward developing those treatments. Mission: Cure is expediting these new discoveries and jumpstarting progress toward treatments—and eventually cures—for pancreatitis. The role of genetics in pancreatitis The ‘traditional’ approach to medicine does not adequately characterize the complex nature of pancreatitis or permit…

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Sep 27
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Dr. Asjbørn Mohr Drewes, MD, PhD

New Guidelines for Managing the Pain of Chronic Pancreatitis

By Pain Management, Topics

Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a poorly understood disease, to the immense frustration of patients, clinicians, and researchers. There is good news: consensus guidelines on chronic pancreatitis pain have been developed by an international team of experts. The task now is to make clinicians and patients aware of them. The challenge of managing chronic pancreatitis pain Abdominal pain is the most prevalent symptom of chronic pancreatitis, yet chronic pain is notoriously difficult to assess and treat. Doctors must often rely on patients’ descriptions of their pain, but they tend to distrust these reports. Doctors, and sometimes family and community members, may…

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Jul 26
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Chronic and recurrent Acute Pancreatitis Pationt Prespectives

Preliminary Results of Patient Survey and Continuing Project

By Uncategorized
As many of you may know, Mission: Cure recently launched its first patient survey to gain real-world patient perspectives on living with the disease. Although the survey is ongoing, and we ask that patients who have not completed the survey take a moment to do so, we are also excited to share some preliminary insights that we have gathered from the first 145 responses.  We are excited to present a white paper report on the results of these first responses that was shared with researchers, clinicians, and FDA authorities at the PancreasFest conference in Pittsburgh, PA earlier this week. The...
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Jul 13
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Mission: Cure - Contribute by completing survey

Introducing Mission: Cure’s First Patient Survey

By Uncategorized

Here at Mission: Cure, we strive to bring the patients’ voices to the forefront of our work. Our mission is to cure chronic and recurrent acute pancreatitis by using an innovative financing model to incentivize research and development. We are asking for you, patients and caregivers, to take a couple of minutes to fill out our patient survey. We believe that the needs and perspectives of you – someone who lives with pancreatitis – should be placed at the center of finding cures. We want researchers to know what improvements you most want to see so that they can identify the…

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Jun 05
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Stephen Pandol, MD, is Director of Basic and Translational Research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Pancreatitis and Alcohol: What’s the Real Connection?

By Alcohol & Pancreatitis, Genetics

I’ve been researching and treating chronic pancreatitis for decades, so I know firsthand what a complicated disease it is and how many unknowns remain. Answers are finally beginning to emerge, but the research is still very preliminary, underscoring how much more we need to learn. It has become increasingly clear that chronic pancreatitis (CP) is caused by multiple factors. Those factors vary from patient to patient and in how they interact with each other. The focus on alcohol and pancreatitis prevents patients from getting the best care As a scientist, I’m worried by the continued misunderstanding of the etiology of…

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