Pancreatic Cancer News

Research funding for pancreatic cancer has fallen by nearly 13 per cent despite no significant improvement in the 3% five-year survival rate for the UK’s fifth biggest cancer killer, according to national charity, Pancreatic Cancer Action.

Spending on other cancers is significantly greater than for pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic Cancer Action has released updated statistics on pancreatic cancer which show that despite the disease having one of the worst five year survival rates of all cancers, and the fact that it is the fifth leading cause of cancer death in the UK, research funding from the National Cancer Research Institute into pancreatic cancer has actually fallen by nearly 13 per cent in the past year.

Pancreatic Cancer Action’s comprehensive statistics pack also highlights the fact that five year survival rates for pancreatic cancer in the USA, Canada and Australia are double those in  the UK and that the UK has one of the worst one-year survival rates in Europe.

Variation is also found in one and five-year survival between UK Cancer Networks with some networks having rates double that of others. Poor one-year survival rates are generally taken to be an indicator of more advanced disease at diagnosis, which is reflected in the fact that 50 per cent of cases present as an emergency.

The statistics packs also include the latest epidemiological data on the disease including a recent UK study which identifies that smoking accounts for nearly one third of UK cases and that risk is increased for those who are obese, those who have chronic pancreatitis, for those with diabetes and for those with a family history of pancreatic cancer.

Ali Stunt, Founder and Chief Executive of Pancreatic Cancer Action said, “ There has been decades of underfunding for pancreatic cancer and to see that research funding for the disease has fallen despite a clear need for it to increase is hugely disappointing. When we look at other cancers such as breast, colorectal, leukaemia and prostate for example, we see a direct correlation between the levels of investment in those diseases and the corresponding improvement in their five year survival rates over the past 30 years. Relative to its disease burden, pancreatic cancer is owed far more than the current 0.9 per cent share of overall research funding it receives if we are to see any significant improvement in survival.”

The statistics pack includes data on pancreatic cancer incidence and mortality plus one, five and ten year survival rates, comparisons of one-year survival against other European countries and between Cancer Networks in England. Included are five-year survival comparisons between different cancers and a look at funding inequalities facing pancreatic cancer versus other common cancers and some not-so-common cancers.

What do the data tell you?

Overall, there has been an increase year on year of pancreatic cancer incidence in the UK to 2010. Incidence stands at 8455 cases in 2010 and there were 7921 deaths in the same year. While incidence has been going up, the age-standardised incidence rate (rate per 100,000 people, standardised to the European population) has remained fairly constant at around 9.0 since 1993.

Sadly, five-year survival rates have remained the same as they have been for over forty years – at just over three per cent. Although there has been an encouraging rise in one-year survival rates in both England, Wales and Scotland since the late 1990′s, the rise has been modest with figures still below 20 per cent. One-year survival rates in Northern Ireland have changed little and are still below 15 per cent.

Pancreatic cancer research continues to be severely underfunded and, despite it being the fifth leading cause of cancer death in the UK, pancreatic cancer still receives less than one per cent of overall research funding.

ENDS

We are delighted to announce a brand new way to support us and treat yourself at the same time!

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Paul Bowker at the start of the MdS April 2013

Paul Bowker has been training hard over the past year for what has been billed one of the toughest footraces on Earth – the Marathon des Sables.

According the the event’s own website, the Marathon des Sables, known simply as the MdS, is a gruelling six-day adventure through a formidable landscape in one of the world’s most inhospitable climates – the Sahara desert. The rules require you to be self-sufficient, to carry with you on your back everything except water that you need to survive. You are given a place in a tent to sleep at night, but any other equipment and food must be carried.

Paul decided to do this to raise money for two charities; Pancreatic Cancer Action, in memory of his father, and the Back-Up Trust.

Not only has Paul completed the race, but he managed to finish 489th out of 1030 who started – a phenomenal result!

And Paul has so far raised a staggering £30,000 to be shared between the two charities which is an amazing amount for an individual fundraiser to raise. We here at Pancreatic Cancer Action are delighted with this and we would like to thank everyone who has sponsored Paul, but most of all to Paul himself who has put himself through such a punishing training schedule before competing in such a gruelling event!

If you would like to donate, Paul’s fundraising page is still open and can be found by clicking here 

Thanks Paul!

A study by a biopharmaceutical company, Immunomedics has found that a new blood test using their humanised antibody, clivatuzumab can identify pancreatic cancer but that it does not react with chronic pancreatitis tissues. This is important because it has the potential to be used as a test to only pick up pancreatic cancer or potential pancreatic cancer.

The study, which was presented at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington DC this week, used clivatuzumab to detect levels of the PAM4 antigen in blood samples.

It was found that 64 per cent of pancreatic cancer patients with early stage disease and 85 per cent with advanced disease (spread to other organs) were found to have the PAM4 antigen detected by clivatuzumab. 

In 120 patients who had been diagnosed with benign (non-cancerous) diseases of the pancreas, 24 (20%) were found to be positive for the PAM4 antigen. The majority of these cases had been diagnosed with chronic pancreatitis (which is a risk factor for pancreatic cancer) and all had had an operation to remove part of the pancreas because of the severity of their disease or because they had had the disease for a long time.

At first this number of people with benign disease being positive for the PAM4 antigen was seen to be a problem. However, previous studies have shown that PAM4 is not present in samples of normal pancreas or pancreas with a benign disease. When the researchers looked at the surgical specimens of those with the chronic pancreatitis, they found that the PAM4 was found only within pancreatic intraepitheral neoplasia lesions (PanINs -which are known to be precursors to pancreatic cancer) and not within the inflamed tissue.

This is important because these results suggest that those chronic pancreatitis patients who test positive for PAM4 (as well as other patients with currently benign diseases of the pancreas) could in fact have the pancreatic cancer precursor lesions (PanINs) and therefore should be monitored very closely.

While this is hopeful, more studies will need to be made on a wider and larger group of patients before the this test could be made routinely available.

Source: Immunomedics company press release, 8th April 2013

Researchers in Japan have developed a test that they believe could help detect pancreatic cancer early using an analysis known as metabolomics.

Using a technique known as gas chromatography mass spectrometry, Masaru Yoshida and colleagues measured the levels of metabolites in the blood of patients with pancreatic cancer, chronic pancreatitis and healthy volunteers (Metabolites are the intermediates and products of metabolism. The term ”metabolite” is usually restricted to small molecules).

The levels of the 18 metabolites generated were found to be significantly different in the healthy volunteers compared with pancreatic cancer patients and the scientists, whose work was published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention¹ claim that they have been able to predict pancreatic cancer using just four of the metabolites. The researchers also found these tests to show both high sensitivity and specificity.

Current screening and biomarker methods are not enough to detect pancreatic cancer early. Using imaging (CT Scans or ultrasound scans) is not cost-effective and the tumour marker CA19-9 is typically used but is inefficient during early stage disease and is not unique to pancreatic cancer.

However further testing needs to be carried out using patient samples from multiple centres in a large-scale trial before the reliability of this test is confirmed and before it can be used to detect pancreatic cancer when the disease is still resectable and potentially curable.