Kimberly Priest

Esophageal Cancer Action Network

ECAN's MISSION is to SAVE LIVES by increasing awareness about the link between Reflux Disease and Cancer, promoting early detection, supporting medical innovation to prevent, detect, treat and cure Esophageal Cancer (EC) and link patients and families to compassionate support. ECAN strives to reach the day when nobody has to die of EC. This national non-profit organization, based in Baltimore, Maryland, is led by a Board of Directors of top medical professionals, business leaders, and families that have been touched by EC. HISTORY: ECAN was founded in 2009 by former attorney and journalist Mindy Mintz Mordecai and an impressive group of dedicated professionals after she lost the father of her two young daughters, and her husband of 14 years, to EC. Angry and frustrated because she believes that her husband and thousands more like him might never have died had they been aware of the link between Heartburn and Cancer, Mordecai is determined to prevent others from suffering the pain EC has caused her family. ECAN has made strides in the fight against Esophageal Cancer. Among ECAN's ACCOMPLISHMENTS: > ECAN successfully advocated with the National Cancer Institute to include Esophageal Cancer in its genome mapping project known as The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) which produced an important "roadmap" for finding a cure to EC. > In 2017, ECAN filed a Citizen Petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seeking new warning labels on all heartburn remedies sold over the counter so those at risk would become aware that reflux can cause cancer and the medications will not eliminate that risk. > ECAN led the effort to have April designated as Esophageal Cancer Awareness Month. With ECAN's support, more than 150 gubernatorial declarations of EC Awareness Month have been achieved throughout the country and in other nations, as well. April is now observed as EC Awareness Month by companies, organizations and governments across the nation – and the world.