Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center pancreatic cancer researcher Dr. Sita Kugel has been named a 2018 V Scholar by the V Foundation for Cancer Research. The two-year, $200,000 award will support Kugel’s goal of developing a targeted therapy for an aggressive subtype of pancreatic cancer.
“I am incredibly humbled and honored to receive this recognition from the V Foundation,” said Kugel, an assistant member of the Human Biology Division.
About 55,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer will be diagnosed this year, making it a relatively rare type of cancer. But though pancreatic tumors make up only 3.2 percent of new cancer diagnoses, the disease accounts for 7.2 percent of all cancer-related deaths. With current treatments, less than 10 percent of patients with pancreatic cancer can expect to survive five years. New, more effective treatments for this disease are desperately needed.
