Staying ahead of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer remains a disease where more than 80 per cent of patients are diagnosed at a point when there is no option for curative treatment. Indeed, Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month in November serves as a timely reminder to primary care nurses of the need to improve awareness of this silent killer so that red flags are spotted and acted upon whenever there is doubt over the cause of unexplained symptoms.

Every year in the UK, around 8800 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and 8700 die. Less than four per cent of people survive for five years or more – a statistic which has hardly changed in the last 40 years.¹