Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) received a $20-million donation for its new pancreatic cancer center that is expected to help develop new methods to detect the disease early on.

The Detroit-based health system announced on Monday that the gift was from someone who wished to remain anonymous. HFHS said the gift will help establish partnerships to identify early signs of the disease.

"We are grateful for this transformational gift that will allow Henry Ford to bring the best minds in the world together to shine an important light on pancreatic cancer," said Wright Lassiter III, president and CEO of HFHS, in a news release.

"It marks a crucial step in advancing pancreatic cancer research with the goal of increasing survivorship for patients diagnosed with this terrible disease."

Pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed late, which makes it difficult to treat, said Steven Kalkanis, medical director of the cancer institute.

"While we've made incredible advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment, where some types of cancer are now curable, pancreatic cancer remains nearly a universally fatal diagnosis," Kalkanis said.

About 53,670 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year, according to HFHS, and most people do not experience symptoms of until the cancer progressed to an advanced stage.

The gift will establish the following:

A Multi-Institutional Pancreatic Consortium, led by Henry Ford, that will serve to drive the research initiatives with focus on early detection, data analytics, translational research, precision medicine and clinical trials.

An endowed director's fund to support the hiring of a leading pancreatic cancer clinical leader and a research leader.

An endowed fund to establish an administrative director.

The donation builds on Detroit businessman Mort Harris, who donated $20 million to HFHS in December 2016 in honor of his late wife, Brigitte, who suffered from pancreatic cancer, to create the Brigitte Harris Cancer Pavilion.

The health system broke ground on the project in June 2017. The $155-million Henry Ford Cancer Institute, which is expected to open in 2020, will be a six-story, 187,000-square-foot facility that will connect to the main hospital building through a skywalk that will be built over West Grand Boulevard.

Harris donated $40 million in total, with the other $20 million going toward building the cancer center. The health system's precision medicine, brain cancer and pancreatic cancer programs will also benefit from the donation.