Headline: New $1M Gift to Accelerate Critical Cancer Research and Advance Patient Care  Susan S. Mirza has continued her long-standing support of the Pancreas Center at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center in honor of her late husband, Muzzafar ‘Muzzi’ Mirza, with a new gift of $1 million. Sue’s commitment will support the center’s new 5-year, $10 million Hope Ahead Campaign. This campaign will solidify the Pancreas Center’s place as the nation’s leader in the field and bring meaningful benefits to patients at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC).    “It is my hope - and I know it would be Muzzi’s hope - that our family can help others,” says Sue. “We know that the need is urgent. We need to expedite the funding for pancreatic research and care to advance the field forward now. Dr. John Chabot and the team at Columbia are poised to make that happen, and we are proud to support them as we have for the past 14 years.” Established in 2006, the Pancreas Center is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary center dedicated to research and treatment of pancreatic cancer, the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the U.S. with the lowest overall survival rate among all cancers. It is one of the toughest cancers to treat and has proven resistant to new generations of targeted and immune-based therapies.    "Sue’s gift will have an outstanding impact here at the HICCC. Her long-standing support – and that of Muzzi’s extended family and many friends - has helped continue the Pancreas Center's contributions as leaders in pancreatic disease, and it will ensure that our patients receive the highest standard of cancer care possible,” said Dr. Chabot, executive director of the Pancreas Center and division chief of gastro-intestinal/endocrine surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia.   “I am proud of what the Pancreas Center has achieved, and I feel more determined than ever to carry on the work we still need to do.”