Quick autopsies -- or rapid organ donation -- may steer scientists in the direction of better diagnosing and treating the most lethal of cancers. Some 33,700 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year -- and 32,300 will die. There is no early detection test for this disease and early symptoms are vague and may be mistaken for health concerns like indigestion. By the time the classic symptoms -- jaundice and itching -- surface, the cancer has typically spread and patients have only months to live. Rapid autopsies have been used before -- for Alzheimer's and prostate cancer -- but this a first in the study of pancreatic cancer and it just may lead to the discovery of what makes this cancer so aggressive and so deadly.

So patients are essentially donating their bodies and organs to science. Organs in the chest and abdomen are photographed, sliced, and flash-frozen before genetic clues start to vanish. Samples of skin, muscle, nerves, lymph nodes, blood, and urine are also studied. Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center are some of the few who are conducting this type of research. From just one patient, they collect 16,000 samples -- and they have studied upwards of 10 patients so far.

There is a critical need for this research -- because pancreatic is so different from other cancers. Plentiful tumors can be surgically removed for breast cancer, for example, and the amount of tissue removed allows for comprehensive research. By the time pancreatic cancer is discovered, however, there is no time to attempt surgery and there is never enough tissue to study.

Quick autopsies -- which must be conducted quickly after death -- may provide the hints necessary for unraveling the mystery of a cancer that even when operable, still provides only a 16% chance of survival. Overall, less than five percent of patients live five years.

Autopsies cost families nothing and do not interfere with funeral arrangements. Results of autopsies -- that make up a library available to international researchers -- may be just what the doctor ordered for identifying methods for early detection, diagnosis, and treatment for a cancer that carries with it little hope.