Screening for Pancreatic Cancer
The Issue
1 person dies from Pancreatic Cancer every hour, it is the fifth biggest cancer killer and at present it is due to take over breast cancer and take fourth spot by 2030.
Survival rates for most types of cancer have increased over the years but staggeringly survival rates for pancreatic cancer have remained pretty much the same for the last 40 years. This is less than 5%.
The biggest problem we face today is early diagnoses, anyone can be effected and symptoms are often hard to spot in time for treatment. Pancreatic cancer only receives 1% of all National Cancer research funding, and at present 80% of diagnosed patient’s will be diagnosed when the cancer has become metastatic, meaning it has spread too far to operate. The survival rate is 2-6 months.
What we need is screening to be made available on the NHS to help catch any early signs of the cancer before symptom are present. This could dramatically reduce the number of deaths we see from pancreatic cancer by giving those diagnosed a chance to receive life saving treatment.
The average age of someone that gets diagnosed with this type of cancer is 65, with almost all patients being over the age of 45. A high indicator of pancreatic cancer is late onset diabetes.
Routine screening to be made available for over 40’s and those with recent diabetes diagnoses at a late stage in life should be made available.
Unfortunately this is very close to home for me and my family and we lost my sweet dad to this terrible disease just three weeks after diagnoses. He developed diabetes in his late 60’s, never having suffered any major health issues in the past. He was failed by this current system and should have been have been checked and received a scan at the time of this diagnosis. This potentially could have been life saving for him.
I don’t want anyone else to have to suffer like my dad and my family have done. It is not a nice thing to see someone you love go downhill so quickly and be given such a short prognoses means a scary and painful end for the person to endure.
This needs to change. Please help me change this facts and make pancreatic cancer a statistic that isn’t quite so scary, one that means treatment can save lives and life expectancy is years, not months.
The Issue
1 person dies from Pancreatic Cancer every hour, it is the fifth biggest cancer killer and at present it is due to take over breast cancer and take fourth spot by 2030.
Survival rates for most types of cancer have increased over the years but staggeringly survival rates for pancreatic cancer have remained pretty much the same for the last 40 years. This is less than 5%.
The biggest problem we face today is early diagnoses, anyone can be effected and symptoms are often hard to spot in time for treatment. Pancreatic cancer only receives 1% of all National Cancer research funding, and at present 80% of diagnosed patient’s will be diagnosed when the cancer has become metastatic, meaning it has spread too far to operate. The survival rate is 2-6 months.
What we need is screening to be made available on the NHS to help catch any early signs of the cancer before symptom are present. This could dramatically reduce the number of deaths we see from pancreatic cancer by giving those diagnosed a chance to receive life saving treatment.
The average age of someone that gets diagnosed with this type of cancer is 65, with almost all patients being over the age of 45. A high indicator of pancreatic cancer is late onset diabetes.
Routine screening to be made available for over 40’s and those with recent diabetes diagnoses at a late stage in life should be made available.
Unfortunately this is very close to home for me and my family and we lost my sweet dad to this terrible disease just three weeks after diagnoses. He developed diabetes in his late 60’s, never having suffered any major health issues in the past. He was failed by this current system and should have been have been checked and received a scan at the time of this diagnosis. This potentially could have been life saving for him.
I don’t want anyone else to have to suffer like my dad and my family have done. It is not a nice thing to see someone you love go downhill so quickly and be given such a short prognoses means a scary and painful end for the person to endure.
This needs to change. Please help me change this facts and make pancreatic cancer a statistic that isn’t quite so scary, one that means treatment can save lives and life expectancy is years, not months.
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on 28 November 2020