Mattress Firm launches effort to back pancreatic cancer research

Bedding retailer Mattress Firm has named the Translational Genomics Research Institute, a key player in the fight against pancreatic cancer, as its charitable partner of choice.
Mattress Firm will support the work of globalCure, a TGen-led alliance of scientists, physicians, and pancreatic cancer advocates.
Steve Stagner, Mattress Firm's president and CEO, said the retailer's support of research at the Phoenix-based TGen will provide employees the opportunity to change lives and raise awareness of pancreatic cancer with every customer interaction.
To launch its program with globalCure, Mattress Firm is partnering with Simmons in a promotion to donate $50 to globalCure for every Simmons Beautyrest dual floor sample sold nationwide at nearly 700 Mattress Firm stores from April 6 through April 17. The goal is to raise more than $100,000.
Jai Pausch, a national advisory committee member of globalCure, praised Stagner and the Houston-based mattress retailer. Pausch became a national advocate for pancreatic cancer following the death of her husband, Randy, a Carnegie Mellon professor and author of the bestselling book, "The Last Lecture."
Stagner said he hopes that Mattress Firm's support will multiply through globalCure and do for pancreatic cancer research and discovery what the Susan G. Komen foundation has done for the fight against breast cancer.
"We have the opportunity to educate our customers about our efforts beyond the sales floor," he said. "We have the opportunity to get involved and engaged with our communities, and impact the lives of over 43,000 Americans that are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year."
Pancreatic cancer is the nation's fourth leading cause of cancer death, and is the only one of the 10 most deadly cancers with a survival rate in the single digits. Nearly 75% of the estimated 43,000 Americans diagnosed annually die within the first year. Only 6% survive longer than five years. In addition, less than 2% of the National Cancer Institute's federal research funding is dedicated to pancreatic cancer research, officials said.
According to Dr. Daniel D. Von Hoff, TGen's physician-in-chief and one of the world's leading authorities on pancreatic cancer, early detection of pancreatic cancer is nonexistent, the survival rate remains low, and federal funding is limited.
"Discoveries directly follow funding and pancreatic cancer receives little in comparison to the percentage of lives it takes," said Von Hoff, who leads the team of 46 physicians from around the world who form the backbone of globalCure. "Having the commitment of Mattress Firm will elevate globalCure's efforts, and the monies raised will allow us to aggressively pursue the underlying genetic causes of the disease and drive an unprecedented number of new therapeutic approaches to patient care."
Donations to globalCure enable the international team of physicians to move quickly on promising new clinical therapies. Specifically, the funds enable globalCure scientists and clinicians to identify diagnostic biomarkers as drug targets; identify and improve new agents that affect the activity of those targets; and evaluate new agents and take the most promising ones to clinical trials for patients in advanced stages of pancreatic cancer.