50,000 people will die from pancreatic cancer by 2029 unless NHS gets major investment, charity warns

At least 50,000 people will die from pancreatic cancer over the next five years unless the government gives more funding to improve how quickly the condition is diagnosed and treated, a major charity has warned.

Pancreatic Cancer UK hit out at 50 years of “unacceptably slow progress” compared to other types of cancer as it warned that thousands of lives will be lost unless £35m of “urgent” investment is put towards improving survival rates of the disease.

The charity predicted that pancreatic cancer – described by experts as the “quickest-killing cancer” – is expected to kill more people each year than breast cancer by 2027, which would make it the fourth-biggest cause of cancer deaths in the UK.

The charity has also called for a commitment to treat everyone diagnosed with the cancer within 21 days, which it says would double the number of people getting treatment in time.

Figures show that, compared to the 52.5% survival rate across the 20 most common cancers in the UK, those with pancreatic cancer have just a 7% survival rate.

Around 10,500 people are diagnosed with the disease each year, with 9,558 deaths a year, according to Cancer Research UK, with more than half of people dying within three months of diagnosis.

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Source: The Independent, 12 March 2024