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 linking 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 children 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 laid the groundwork for immunotherapies to be approved for Esophageal Cancer patients by the FDA in 2021.> ECAN led the charge on Capitol Hill to allow Esophageal Cancer researchers to apply to a cancer research fund of more than $100M administered by the US Dept. of Defense. In the past three years, that has resulted in about $14M in new federal research funding for Esophageal Cancer.> ECAN led the effort to have April designated as Esophageal Cancer Awareness Month in 2009. Since then, hundreds of government proclamations have declared April EC Awareness Month, and millions of individuals have received the life-saving message that Heartburn can cause Cancer.