After Olympic swimming medalist and Survivor competitor Elizabeth “Liz” Beisel lost her father to advanced pancreatic cancer, she was inspired to partner with Swim Across America to help fund an American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Conquer Cancer Young Investigator Award. Peter Yu, MD, an oncologist at NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center and a third-year physician–scientist track fellow in the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, was the recipient of this grant in 2022. This Young Investigator Award supports Dr. Yu’s research on the metabolism of pancreatic cancer cells and how they are able to grow and survive in an environment that is low in nutrients. Dr. Yu is conducting this research under the mentorship of Alec Kimmelman, MD, PhD, the Anita Steckler and Joseph Steckler Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and a radiation oncologist at Perlmutter Cancer Center.

On ASCO’s Your Stories podcast, Dr. Yu and Beisel discuss the importance of accelerating research on this disease, which has a survival rate of only 11 percent after diagnosis. Dr. Yu tells podcast host Don S. Dizon, MD, that no single person can conquer cancer.

“Only as a team can we try to conquer cancer, especially pancreatic cancer,” says Dr. Yu. “The team includes donors and funding agencies, but the most important aspect I think are the patients who are in the trials and who are getting treatments and the families and their support systems. I think altogether we are conquering cancer.”

Listen to Dr. Yu’s entire interview on Your Stories.