Pancreatic Cancer

On Sept 7, the charity Pancreatic Cancer UK released Study for Survival 2011, a report that makes uncomfortable reading. Patients in the UK with pancreatic cancer have a 5-year survival rate of only 3%, the lowest for any cancer. Pancreatic cancer causes 5% of all cancer deaths in the UK, but attracts less than 1% of overall cancer research funding.

Late diagnosis and heterogeneous treatment approaches are two possible reasons for the poor pancreatic cancer outcomes in the UK. The report highlights several actions needing immediate implementation: improvement in the national pancreatic cancer risk assessment algorithm, reform of existing referral guidelines, enhanced communication and collaboration between hospitals and specialist pancreatic cancer centres, greater funding for pancreatic cancer research, and increased participation in clinical trials.

Early diagnosis and improved treatment must become the standard of care for patients with pancreatic cancer in the UK and worldwide.

Professor Minoti Apte, from the University of NSW school of medical sciences, said pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the western world.

"It can be associated with vague symptoms, so it’s often diagnosed late and by the time it is diagnosed it has often metastasised or spread to other organs."

The average age of the cancer's onset is 65, and current treatment options include surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

According to information on the Cancer Council of NSW website, 686 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in NSW each year and it is the 13th most common cancer in NSW.

The Cancer Council website says pancreatic cancer was until recently one of the most under-researched types of cancer in Australia, despite being one of the leading causes of cancer deaths.

One of the laureates awarded the 2011 Nobel medicine prize, Ralph Steinman of Canada, died of pancreatic cancer on September 30 just days before his award was announced.

As the BBC reported: "Usually, medical research proceeds at a glacial, thorough pace: cell studies lead to studies in small animals which lead to studies in larger animals, which eventually lead to small, highly-selective clinical trials in humans. So Steinman decided to make his own body the ultimate experiment.