Check the Pancreas Club Past Meetings page for links to past final programs, abstracts, videos, and the 2011 Meeting Summary.

Dear Colleagues,

The Pancreas Club Program Committee wishes to thank all of you who submitted an abstract for the 46th Annual Pancreas Club Meeting to be held in San Diego, CA on Friday & Saturday, May 18, 19 at the  Hyatt Regency Mission Bay.  We received a record number of abstracts this year and are hard at work reviewing them.  We will be in touch with all submitters soon with acceptance notices.

In the meantime, watch this space for meeting-related announcements.

Submission Deadline Extended: New deadline is December 31, 2011

We invite you to submit your best and most current work, either from your clinical or laboratory research. Oral presentations are scheduled for 10 minutes with 5 minutes allotted for discussion. There will again be short oral/poster presentations of 3 minutes with 2 minutes for discussion. These shorter presentations may be used as an introduction to data which can be more fully described in a poster.

During daily breaks, selected posters will be highlighted and there will be daily poster-side Professor Rounds.

All abstracts must be submitted via the submission web site. You will be required to create an account on that site.

Download the User Guide For the Submission web site.

Access the SubmitMyAbstract.com submission site.

Executive Administrator

Maribeth Balon
310-437-0555 TEL
310-437-0585 FAX
admin@PancreasClub.com

Mailing Address

Pancreas Club, Inc.
11300 W. Olympic Blvd
Suite 600
Los Angeles, CA 90064

The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network is excited to announce that it will begin accepting applications for the 2012 research grants Program on September 1, 2011. Four grant mechanisms are offered. Funding is available for postdoctoral/clinical research fellows as well as for independent junior and senior researchers. The proposed research must be directly relevant to pancreatic cancer and can be basic, translational, clinical or epidemiological in nature.  More information about the grants program is available at: http://www.pancan.org/section_research/research_grants_program/apply_for_a_grant.php

Thanks were expressed to Mike Bouvet and the staff at UCSD for a fine meeting. Review of the evaluation comments indicated overwhelmingly that this meeting was a success and quality level of the presentations outstanding. The new professor rounds for abstracts were popular and will be expanded for 2009. For the first time CME was provided and this was welcomed by those in attendance. A summary of the presentations written by Bill Schiller was submitted for publication in JOGS.

• Attendance: 195 including 30 new members and 46 residents
• Abstracts: 142 submitted; peer-reviewed by 10 committee members
• Meeting support: 8 companies provided financial support
• Dinner: attended by 184 members and guests. Carlos Fernandez delCastillo gave an outstanding talk about honoree Andy Warshaw.

Because the number and quality of the abstracts has increased significantly over the past several years, the Advisory Committee is exploring Saturday for expansion into this day even though a vast majority of those surveyed said they wanted to keep it on Sunday – as it has been since 1971. The group also approved seeking funding for two resident abstract awards (see article page 2) to recognize outstanding abstracts. Dinner and meeting honorees were also discussed.

Membership has steadily increased bringing the total number of active members to 304 including 16 honorary/retired and 45 residents. Dues for 2009 will remain the same.

On November 7, 2008, the symposium, organized by Bill Nealon, Pancreas Club Director, was entitled “Choice of Modalities & Principles in the Management of Pancreatic Pseudocysts”. Nealon and Dr. Michael Levy, Mayo Clinic presented the surgical and endoscopic perspectives. Drs. Warshaw, President-Elect of APA, and Nealon moderated this successful first joint symposium.

The Pancreas Club was invited to present a panel at the November 2008 American Pancreatic Association meeting. Bill Nealon will develop a panel presentation on behalf of the Club. Communications with the SSAT leadership resulted in a confirmation that SSAT now considers the Pancreas Club as a national society and thus the rules of DDW for abstract submissions apply to the Pancreas Club.

The Pancreas Club is pleased to announce two new awards beginning in 2009. The program committee will rate each oral presentation and the award recipients will be announced at the Sunday dinner event. In order to be eligible for two awards, the work must be authored primarily by a resident or fellow and the presentation must be made by the resident or fellow. Presentation of the work by an attending faculty will not be considered for awards. PanCan Research Award: $1,000 for the best oral presentation of clinical or basic science pancreatic cancer research by a resident or fellow. This award is funded by the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. Kenneth Warren Research Award: $1,000 for the best oral presentation of clinical or basic science pancreatitis or pancreatic cancer research by a resident or fellow. This award is funded by the Pancreas Club and the Kenneth Warren Foundation.

For your academic needs, the Pancreas Club offers a free online calculator of the new standardized definition for postoperative pancreatic “fistula” (POPF) or “leak.” Also included is the calculator for delayed gastric emptying (DGE). After clinical testing with actual data the calculator uses a slightly modified definition of the definition published from the International Study Group of Pancreatic Surgery (ISGPS). These definitions have been published by Bassi et al, Surgery 2005; 138:8-13 and Wente, et al., Surgery 2007; 142:761-8. For the first time we can use a consensus definition and also now it is facilitated by this calculator.

The Life and Times of Allen Oldfather Whipple: The Missionary and the Surgeon By John M. Howard, M.D. Read a review by Nicholas J. Zyromski, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Indiana University.

The Pancreas Club Directors and the Advisory Committee met in Santa Fe in July to review the evaluations of the 2008 meeting, make plans for the 2009 meeting, review the results of the Membership Survey, and discuss the future programs of the Club. Attending the meeting were: Bill Traverso, Bill Nealon, Gerry Aranha, Mike Farnell, Maria Petzel, Mark Talamonti, Charlie Frey, Bill Schiller and Beverlee Anderson. Conferencing in on Saturday were Doug Evans and David Adams.

Read the 2008 newsletter for full details. The Pancreas Club was invited to present a panel at the November 2008 American Pancreatic Association meeting. Bill Nealon will develop a panel presentation on behalf of the Club. At the 2008 DDW, the Pancreas Club leadership was approached by individuals representing SSAT with concerns about possible conflicts with DDW policy regarding abstracts presented at the Pancreas Club. A formal communication from SSAT was received since the Summer retreat which confirmed that SSAT now considers the Pancreas Club as a national society and thus the rules of DDW for abstract submissions apply to the Pancreas Club. The Pancreas Club’s mission, however, remains “to maintain an informal club atmosphere” and we do not consider ourselves a national society. However, this year’s Pancreas Club “Call for Abstracts” reflects the SSAT position.

Please read the Draft of the Atlanta Classification on Acute Pancreatitis and send any comments to Michael Saar.