And despite our advances in understanding the disease, this figure has barely budged in the last 40 years.
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Over three quarters of people living in Northern Ireland are unable to name a symptom of pancreatic cancer, which kills one person every hour in the UK according to a latest survey.
But at the moment, there are no reliable ways to detect the disease early – and one is desperately needed.
Ann Stella’s son Robert died from pancreatic cancer when he was 26.
“We’ve always been keen to develop a diagnostic test in urine as it has several advantages over using blood”.
So what’s the actual story?
– Family history: Pancreatic cancer can run in families.
The scientists from the UK and Spain who developed the test hope that if its early promise is realised then it could be possible to diagnose patients much earlier and offer them treatment. The symptoms can be quite vague and may also be a sign of other more common illnesses, so investigations can be delayed. “It’s an inert and far less complex fluid than blood and can be repeatedly and non-invasively tested”, said lead researcher Tatjana Crnogorac-Jurcevic, M.D., Ph.D.
They noticed that three proteins – LYVE-1, REG1A and TFF1 – were higher in pancreatic cancer patients.
Each biomarker and the three-biomarker panel were evaluated with their performance in differentiating between pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients (all stages or early stages 1-2) and controls, and for each comparison 70% of participants were randomly assigned to a training dataset, and the rest to a validation dataset.
“We will continue to do all we can to raise awareness of the disease, but we need to see the Welsh Government take action by funding a public awareness campaign to help spread the word about pancreatic cancer and its symptoms”.
The researchers analyzed 192 urine samples from patients with pancreatic cancer, alongside 92 samples from patients with chronic pancreatitis and 87 samples from healthy individuals.
Patients with chronic pancreatitis were found to have lower levels of the same three proteins.
If pancreatic cancer is suspected, screening tests will be arranged, such as ultrasound, Connecticut scans and MRI scans. And, as mentioned previously, this “three protein” method can’t yet reliably discriminate between those with chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer is much less reliable. Pancreatic cancer is often very advanced by the time it is detected.
That could significantly improve the outlook for pancreatic cancer patients, say study co-author Nick Lemoine, director of the Barts Institute.
– Obesity and diet: Obesity and eating a diet that is high in fats increases the risk of developing pancreatic cancer substantially. Researchers looked at 488 urine samples.
A simple urine test is showing promising results in detecting pancreatic cancer earlier than current methods.
But the question of whom could benefit from such a test still remains. However, early diagnosis of the disease is uncommon, with around 80% of patients being diagnosed at later stages.
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Furthermore, this new finding could potentially save hundreds of lives.
