Pancreatic cancer is only the 9th most common cancer in the UK, and yet it is the 5th leading cause of cancer death. Over 10,000 people died of pancreatic cancer in the UK in 2020. Sadly this aggressive disease has very low survival rates, and continues to be one of the most difficult types of cancer to diagnose and treat. But with your help we are funding exciting discovery research into pancreatic cancer that we hope will lead the way to future cures.
Pancreatic cancer is defined as a “silent killer” because there are no specific symptoms in the early stages.
What is pancreatic cancer?
The pancreas is an organ that sits just behind your stomach and plays two important roles in your body: it produces hormones, including insulin, and it also produces enzymes, which are important for our digestive system.
In 2020, nearly half a million people worldwide were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and over 460,000 people died from the disease. The most common cancer that develops in the pancreas is called pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. This accounts for 90% of all pancreatic cancer cases, and it happens when cells that are part of the digestive function of the pancreas develop cancer.
Pancreatic cancer is also particularly difficult to cure, which is why it is vital that we continue funding more research to find new ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat it.
Why is pancreatic cancer so hard to cure?
Pancreatic cancer is hard to spot
One of the reasons pancreatic cancer is so difficult to treat is that it is hard to diagnose. Because the pancreas is located deep inside the body, tumours often go undetected until the cancer has spread to other parts of the body – known as metastasis. Once a cancer has metastasized, it is very difficult to cure.
Additionally, in the early stages of pancreatic cancer you might not have any symptoms, or they may be vague. Symptoms include things like indigestion, weight loss and fatigue, which are also symptoms of many other more common health conditions, making it hard to diagnose.
Pancreatic cancer is like a fortress
Another reason that pancreatic cancer is hard to treat is that when a tumour develops in the pancreas, it is often surrounded by thick scar tissue that makes treatment like chemotherapy less effective. Not only this, but this thick tissue prevents nutrients from entering the tumour – so the cells become especially strong to be able to survive in difficult conditions. This in turn makes the cells more resistant to chemotherapy drugs.
There is still so much that is unknown about pancreatic cancer
There is still lots to learn about pancreatic cancer that will improve our ability to diagnose and treat the disease. That's why we're funding crucial research into understanding pancreatic cancer that our researchers hope will lead to new cures in the future.
There are limited treatment options
The success of any treatment depends on how advanced the cancer is, including whether it has spread to nearby organs or other parts of the body. Surgery can be the best option for localised cases, however it is a major operation and patients need to be fit enough. Removing some or all of the pancreas can cause difficulty digesting food, cause diabetes, and generally takes many months to recover from. Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or a combination (chemoradiotherapy) may be used before surgery to reduce the size of the tumour.
If surgery is not an option, chemotherapy and radiotherapy can also be used to try and reduce the size of the tumour or manage its growth. If the pancreatic cancer is too advanced, stents or bypasses are other options to help manage symptoms like sickness and jaundice.
Once pancreatic cancer has become more advanced or spread, often the stage at which it is discovered, it is very difficult to treat with current methods. This shows why it is so important to do more to understand pancreatic cancer, learn how to spot it earlier, and discover new cures.
The problem with pancreatic cancer is that we know very little about how it develops, how it spreads, how it progresses – and this also prevents scientists from developing really good treatments in order to combat this disease.
We urgently need your help to fund more research that will find new cures for pancreatic cancer. Together we can save lives - will you join us today?
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