Pancreatic Cancer UK Incidence and Mortality

Pancreatic Cancer is the 9th most common cancer in the UK¹

In 2010, 8455 people were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the UK. The number of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the UK has been steadily rising in 2009, the number was 8,366 and in 2008, the number was 8,085 having risen from 7,684 in 2007.

However, European age-standardised incidence rates (per 100,000) have remained constant (around 9.0) since 1993 (CRUK)²

In 2008, 7,781 persons died from pancreatic cancer. In 2009 it had increased to 8,047 persons but the figure has dropped slightly in 2010 to 7,921. Approximately 22 people a day and nearly one person an hour will die from pancreatic cancer in the UK.

 Pancreatic cancer has one of the highest incident-to-mortality rates of ANY disease

Pancreatic cancer incidence 2010:

 Pancreatic Cancer Mortality, 2010

Average pancreatic cancer incidence & mortality in the UK during the period 2007-2009¹¹

	Males	Females	Persons
Newly Diagnosed Cases 2005-2007 (3 year averages)	4052	4180	8232
Age-standardised incidence rate per 100,000 population*	10.7	8.3	9.5
Deaths 2005-2007 (3 year averages)	3816	4038	7854
Age-standardised mortality rate per 100,000 population*	10	7.9	8.95

* Age-standardised to the European population. 

Why are the figures two years old?

The  statistics on this website relate to the latest available on pancreatic cancer at the time of publication. Because the reporting system  for incidence varies with the cancer registries across the countries of the United Kingdom and for mortality published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), there is usually a delay of approximately 18 months for the collation of incidence figures and of 12 months for the collation of mortality figures.

Incidence and survival of pancreatic cancer per age group:

While age is a significant risk factor for pancreatic cancer, 40% of cases in England between 2005 & 2009 occurred in those under the age of 69:

While incidence is lower for those under the age of 60, the one-year survival rate for this group is significantly higher:

While incidence is lower for those up to age 59, five-year survival is significantly better than for those over the age of 60 where survival drops off markedly:

Source: Office for National Statistics Statistical Bulletin¹²

Map of Global incidence of Pancreatic Cancer:

Future Predictions:

Using Population forecasts extracted from the “United Nations, World Population Prospects, the 2008 revision”, GLOBOCAN 2008 data for cancer incidence and mortality worldwide has predicted that incidence of pancreatic cancer in the UK will increase to nearly 9000 cases by 2015.

This is set to grow further by 2020, and by 2025 when over 10,000 cases per year are predicted:

Reference: GLOBOCAN 2008¹³