Sad news today — Jack Poole, Chairman of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) died peacefully in hospital early this morning. My sincere condolences go out to his family at this time.

Jack Poole fought a tough battle with one of the most aggressive cancers out there — pancreatic cancer. It is always disheartening to hear when cancer takes someone so active in our community, someone who contributed so much.

Pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers. Often, it doesn’t cause any signs or symptoms in the early stages. Tumours can grow quite large before the person even knows they have the disease.

Because of this, research into the causes and treatment of pancreatic cancer is tremendously important to save lives.

The Canadian Cancer Society funds biochemist Jeremy Wulff and his team at the University of Victoria. Dr. Wulff is developing a new way of treating pancreatic cancer by looking at chemical activity outside the cancer cell rather than inside. The hope is this new form of treatment will avoid the dangerous side effects of chemotherapy.

We’re making progress. This research can be used to improve survival rates for pancreatic and other cancers in the near future.