Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Week 16th - 22nd November, 2009
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FormerMember
For the first time in the UK there will be a pancreatic cancer awareness week "change the numbers" campaign from 16th -22nd November 2009. This awareness week embodies most UK pancreatic charities and associations and I encourage anyone who has been touched by pancreatic cancer to get involved.
More will be posted as soon as the information is available. In the meantime, maybe you will have some thoughts on how you would like to participate so we can raise the profile of pancreatic cancer amongst the wider community in order to "change the numbers" - the main numbers being that pancreatic cancer survival rates have not changed in 40 years.
PANCREATIC CANCER: CHANGE THE NUMBERS
November 16th -22nd 2009
FormerMember
Hi. Thanks for the info on this.
I am SO pleased that this is happening - I know that there are so many different cancers and everyone wants to know time, money and research is being carried out on their particular one, but it is terrible that the survival rates for pancreatic cancer have not improved for 40 years! When you consider that PC is the 5th most common cause of cancer death in Europe and the USA and the 5-year survival rate is 3%, it seems very little has been done upto now to improve these figures.
I have learnt that when many patients are diagnosed with PC, it is too late to do anything for them. Even after treatment, the cancer returns and is hard to deal with. What I would like to see is far more research being carried out. I have read of trials in Egypt where omega 3 has been used to destroy PC cells with encouraging results, but only with mice. Several studies seem to back up the success of this trial, yet nothing has actually been tested with humans . Why? Is it due to lack of funds? My husband has PC and I am frustrated that no one seems to know if we should try omega 3 while he is undergoing chemo. The doctors have said it won't do any harm, but we don't know what strength/dose to use. Not enough research has been done for anyone to refer to.
Thanks for trying to raise the profile of this awful, aggressive cancer.
My mother died from pancreatic cancer 25yrs ago and it seems that there has not been any improvements with survival since! My mum had symptoms for 18 months prior to her diagnosis and our GP did not pick up the possibility of a cancer therefore she was left until it was too late. I appreciate that there are MRI and other sophisticated scanners now, but more treatment is needed so anything to raise awareness is fantastic.
Can I just add that I have been effected by oral cancer myself and always will be for the rest of my days. Awareness of oral cancer seems to be nil and yet cure rates could be vastly improved if detected early it seems that survival had not improved with this type of cancer for over 30yrs! WHY?
As referred to above by Ellie and Ruth - my Muminlaw was not well for at least 18 months about 6 months before diagnosis she visited the GP several times with different symptoms ie sickness, backache and what she termed heartburn - each time there was some reason given 1) its asprin lets leave it off 2) it could be the cocodamol lets leave it off
Eventually last March my Fatherinlaw went to GP with her and said somethings got to be done she cant carry on like this
Mum was then sent for Ultrasound which found the mass and MRI to diagnose the tumour
Why did it take so long to decide to send Mum for tests by the time she was diagnosed it was too late for surgery
Oh well we can hope the Awareness Week has some impact with the public and the GPs
