The idea to include an informal chat room on Hopkins Pancreas Cancer Web Page originally came as an afterthought, recalls pathologist Ralph Hruban, M.D., a leading expert on the disease, who helped start the informative site a few years back as a resource for patients and physicians. But the chat part of the Web page, where patients fighting the deadly cancer post questions, get advice and offer each other emotional support, instantly sprang to life. Hundreds of patients and their families and friends now check in to discuss the challenges of battling the disease.
Many writers continue to log on, long after their stricken family members have died.
Recently, the site spurred activism. Two Los Angeles-based correspondents on the chat room, each of whom had lost a parent to pancreatic cancer, were touched last January when numerous despairing and angry chat messages complained about the lack of funding for pancreatic cancer research. One, Pam Acosta, an executive of a scrap metal recycling company, had visions of holding a gala fundraiser replete with celebrities and black ties at a Beverly Hills hotel. The other, Paula Simper, who owns a construction consulting company, had promised her father before he died that she would contribute in some way to promoting earlier detection of the disease. She had visions of raising money to support basic science and she wanted the money to go to the world-renowned labs at Hopkins.