More awareness of pancreatic cancer is needed as the disease is often diagnosed late due to a lack of awareness about signs and symptoms, the Irish Cancer Society (ICS) has said.

An estimated 565 people are newly diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas every year in Ireland, however a large proportion of these are diagnosed too late for treatment to be effective.

As a result, it has one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers, with almost four in five people dying within one year of their diagnosis. More than nine in 10 die within five years.

Most cases of pancreatic cancer occur in people over the age of 60 and symptoms can be vague, meaning that people may not seek medical help. Symptoms include:
-Pain or discomfort around the stomach area, which may also spread to the back
-Weight loss
-Loss of appetite
-Jaundice
-Nausea
-Vomiting
-Feeling full very quickly
-Low mood.

"Tumours in less accessible sites like the pancreas mean that patients often present to an emergency setting with a medical concern, after which the diagnosis of cancer is made.

"Pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest 10-year survival rates of all cancers, with less than eight in every 100 people surviving 10 years or more. Most patients present at advanced stages of the disease, meaning that curative treatment is often very difficult and there is a huge need for identification of improved diagnosis and treatments," explained ICS cancer support manager, Joan Kelly.

She noted that while fantastic work is being done in the national centres that treat this cancer - St. Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin and Cork University Hospital - more focus on early detection is needed.

Chris Conlon was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2009 and died just nine weeks later. His wife Mary, and children Lou, Paul and Laura, explained that Chris spent most of his illness in an Emergency Department, having been sent there by his GP after presenting with sore and swollen legs.

"Our experience as a family was very brutal and very fast, involving many nights on trolleys in A&E and while it was awful losing our Dad, there would have been more support, and knowledge for us all, if he had been treated in a palliative setting.

"Once Chris was diagnosed, we as a family looked back at the previous 12 months through a very different lens, remembering all the times he actually was sick, and remembering all the symptoms we didn't properly address, attributing temperatures, colds and common complaints to every day stresses," the family noted.

They said that they hoped increased awareness of this disease would lead to ‘less people presenting in an emergency setting'.

"Chris will always be so much more to us than just a victim of pancreatic cancer, so if we can help encourage people towards early detection, some good would come of our tremendous loss," they added.

Research commissioned by the ICS and undertaken by the National Cancer Registry of Ireland (NCRI), has shown that pancreatic cancer is the cancer with the highest proportion of cases diagnosed through hospital EDs. One in three people with pancreatic cancer (34%) first present in EDs, compared with three in every 20 (15%) for cancers as a whole (other than non-melanoma skin cancers).

This research also found that pancreatic cancer had the highest rate of a late-stage diagnosis, with over half of all presentations (58%) being presented at stage IV. This means that by the time it was diagnosed, in most cases it had already spread to other parts of the body.

"Emergency presentation with cancer can result from lack of awareness of symptoms in patients and is generally associated with more advanced stage, fewer treatment options and poorer survival outcomes. This tallies with the statistics that we have seen over the years in relation to pancreatic cancer," commented Prof Kerri Clough-Gorr, director of the NCRI.

She also pointed out that there is a ‘clear link' between people's socioeconomic factors and those presenting with cancer in EDs.

"Among pancreatic cancer patients from the least deprived areas, 27% presented in emergency settings, compared with 41% of patients from the most deprived areas - a difference of 14%. So it is evident that not only does someone's socioeconomic status influence the likelihood of a person getting cancer, it also is associated with a late diagnosis," she said.

While the cause of pancreatic cancer is unknown, known risk factors include smoking, consuming a diet high in fat and sugar, diabetes, and chronic pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas).

The ICS highlighted this issue to coincide with World Pancreatic Cancer Day (November 16).

Anyone who is concerned about pancreatic cancer can speak to a cancer nurse on the ICS's Cancer Nurseline on 1800 200 700, or call into one of the ICS's 13 Daffodil Centres in hospitals nationwide.

More information on the disease is also available here