July 29--When Dr. David C. Whitcomb realized few programs in the country were focused on understanding the pancreas, he decided to throw a festival of sorts.
Whitcomb, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, gathered pancreas experts from around the country and gave the meeting a catchy name: PancreasFest. The gathering, now in its sixth year, kicks off today with more than 200 participants from around the world.
"Pancreatic diseases are complex diseases, so the question is how do you study a complex disease?" said Whitcomb, Pitt's chief of gastroenterolgy, hepatology and nutrition.
The diseases include pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas that sends more than 200,000 people a year to the hospital. The pancreas, which secretes digestive juices and enzymes, behaves differently from person to person, Whitcomb said. Doctors are trying to figure out why some people end up with chronic pain while others develop DNA damage and end up with pancreatic cancer.
"You can't predict how everything is going to be, how fast it's going to progress and which complications they're going to have," he said.
That's problematic because when patients show up in a doctor's office or at the hospital, doctors aren't quite sure how much treatment to give. Part of the problem stems from the fact that patients are scattered through the United States, which prevents researchers from collecting reliable data. Not all experts study the same aspects of the pancreas.
"What you have to do is gather a large number of patients and look at all the different pieces of the puzzle," Whitcomb said.
Bringing experts together will help standardize ways to diagnose conditions such as pancreatitis, said Dr. Randall E. Brand, a gastroenterologist who teaches at Pitt.
"We're still figuring out what the gold standard is for making a diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis," he said. "Is it pain? Is it an imaging test? Is it a biopsy?"
Both doctors said they are confident that pooling resources from around the world is the best way to attack pancreatic illnesses. They're also hopeful that they can attract young researchers to interact with senior leaders.
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