Campaign calls for better early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer

Around 700 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year in Yorkshire.

The condition has among the worst survival rates for any type of the disease, with only four per cent of sufferers living for five years.

Figures show 57 per cent of cases are diagnosed when patients seek emergency treatment – double the rate of all cancers. Only five per cent of breast cancers and 10 per cent of prostate cancers are diagnosed at the same stage.

It already claims nearly 8,000 lives a year in the UK and is the fifth biggest cancer killer. Among those who have died from the illness are Steve Jobs, of computer giant Apple, and actor Patrick Swayze.

Campaigners from the charity Pancreatic Cancer UK today call for better diagnosis of the disease, claiming 150 additional patients would survive for a year or longer if only 25 per cent of patients were diagnosed as emergencies.

Alex Ford, chief executive of the charity, said: “With pancreatic cancer on course to overtake breast cancer as the fourth biggest cancer killer in the UK, we must do more to improve early diagnosis.

“It is especially important that we tackle the significant numbers of patients diagnosed at an advanced stage of the disease as a result of an emergency presentation.”

Only nine per cent of those diagnosed in an emergency live for one year, compared with a quarter of those whose condition is discovered following a referral by a GP.

The charity said an analysis of the national cancer patient experience survey showed they had longer waits to get referred to hospital by GPs than any other cancer group.

In a campaign launched today called Every Life Matters, it calls for an audit to reduce the number of cases diagnosed as emergencies. It also wants measures put in place to help GPs identify patients who need further investigation and calls for rapid access jaundice clinics to be set up among a series of improvements to diagnostic care.