Diagnosing pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer has a dismal prognosis and the statistics make grim reading. In 2014, 9614 of pancreatic cancer patients were diagnosed with the disease and 8834 died from the malignancy.^1-3 Currently, only 4% of patients survive beyond five years. It is the fifth biggest cancer killer in the UK and set to overtake breast cancer as the fourth biggest cancer killer by 2030.⁴

The most common risk factors associated with pancreatic cancer are smoking, obesity and older age, with the median age being 72.⁵ While advising patients on how a healthy lifestyle can cut their risk of developing pancreatic cancer, it’s important to note that, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, pancreatic cancer is considered to be one of a number of ‘bad luck’ cancers. Two-thirds of pancreatic cancer tumours are attributable to the random mutations that occur in stem cell divisions throughout a person’s lifetime.⁶