ALBANY–Walkers will unite at the Elm Avenue Town Park in Delmar, 261, Elm Ave., on Sunday, Sept. 27, for the Albany Walk for Pancreatic Cancer Research. Those interested may sign up as an individual, join a team, or start a team. Then, they may donate, fund-raise and join the event. Registration begins at 8 a.m., with the walk starting at 10 a.m.

After losing four family members to pancreatic cancer, Shari and Neil Piper organized the first Albany Walk for Pancreatic Cancer Research in 2004. Over a 20-year-period, Neil lost his mother, sister, uncle and brother. “We knew Neil, and most likely our children, were genetically ‘wired’ for pancreatic cancer,” Shari explained. “We could either bury our heads in the sand or become proactive in the fight against pancreatic cancer. We chose to become involved with the Lustgarten Foundation, especially when we learned 100% of every dollar raised, funds pancreatic cancer research with a focus on early detection and a cure for this disease.”

Shari Piper told The Jewish World that pancreatic cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer deaths and has a five-year survival rate of only 12%. “By funding cutting-edge research focused on earlier detection, new treatments and personalized medicine, the Lustgarten Foundation is a force for progress, improving pancreatic cancer outcomes so patients live longer, healthier lives.” Since 2004, the Lustgarten Foundation’s Albany Walk for Pancreatic Cancer Research has raised more than $2 million to support pancreatic cancer research.

This year, an estimated 67,530 Americans will receive a pancreatic cancer diagnosis and approximately 2,930 New Yorkers will die from this disease. While pancreatic cancer accounts for just 3% of all cancers annually diagnosed in the United States, it is the third-leading cause of cancer deaths and has a 5-year survival rate of only 13% — up from the 3% when the Foundation began its work.

Piper added that of special interest to The Jewish World readers, pancreatic cancer is more common in Jews than in the general population, and Ashkenazic Jews have a greater risk than Sephardic Jews. About 1 in 40 Jews in the United States will get pancreatic cancer, compared to 1 in 67 in the overall U.S. population, according to a 2011 study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. A growing body of evidence suggests that increased pancreatic cancer risk for Ashkenazic Jews has a genetic basis; these cancers are caused by inherited mutations in specific cancer-associated genes, including the familial breast cancer genes BRCA2 and BRCA1. The risk of cancer to Jews who inherit a defective copy of BRCA2 or BRCA1 varies in different families. The reason for this variation in risk is thought to be dependent on “lifestyle factors” such as smoking, obesity, dietary influences, the inheritance of other cancer susceptibility genes and a certain element of chance.

Shari and Neil Piper, Walk founders and leaders, can provide information at 518-475-1200, or

pcrwalkalbany@gmail.com.

Also Susan Jacobson, Director, Lustgarten Foundation external and community relations at 914-589-7553

sjacobson@lustgarten.org can provide details.