25.11.13
NHS needs national plan to tackle pancreatic cancer – APPG
Treatment for pancreatic cancer is not patient-centred, well co-ordinated or efficient, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Pancreatic Cancer (APPG PC) has warned.
A new report, ‘Time to Change the Story’, highlights a significant lack of understanding of the disease and its impact. Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate of 21 most common cancers, with hardly any improvement in survival rates in the last 40 years. The report will be launched at 5pm today by health secretary Jeremy Hunt.
The APPG PC sets out 12 recommendations to raise awareness of the disease, to help the NHS develop a greater focus and invest more resource to tackle pancreatic cancer.
The recommendations include undertaking a whole-sale review of referral pathways and diagnostic services available to GPs, and a comprehensive audit of treatment to improve access for patients.
A review is needed to establish whether groups with increased risk should be monitored and screened for the disease, the report adds.
Eric Ollerenshaw, MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood and chair of the Inquiry, said: “We must, as a matter of urgency, challenge the misconceptions surrounding the disease, in particular the notion that pancreatic cancer is a rare disease which only affects elderly men. In fact, a third of all diagnoses of pancreatic cancer occur in people under the age of 65 and it affects men and women almost equally.
“And whilst it is only the tenth most common cancer, in terms of mortality it is currently the fifth most common cause of cancer death, and predicted to be the fourth by 2030. This report from the APPG sets out a national plan to tackle pancreatic cancer; a plan that must be adopted as soon as possible if we are to ever make progress and improve survival rates.”
Alex Ford, chief executive of Pancreatic Cancer UK, added: “We fully support the recommendations set out in this report. We feel very strongly that in order to improve pancreatic cancer survival rates we need to get more patients diagnosed more quickly and ensure that all those with suspected pancreatic cancer get the earliest possible input from experts at specialist centres. This means, amongst other things, giving GPs quicker access to diagnostic investigations and introducing the screening of high-risk patients.”
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