John Baron MP is guest speaker at Pancreatic Cancer UK’s ‘Day of Action’ Parliamentary launch

MP talks of the importance of earlier diagnosis

Last night John Baron MP spoke at the launch of Pancreatic Cancer UK’s major new ‘Campaign for Hope’, which aims to ensure the disease benefits from more focus and investment to improve survival rates and quality of life. The launch was the culmination of Pancreatic Cancer UK’s Day of Action, and marks the beginning of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.

The Day of Action follows on from the recent release of Pancreatic Cancer UK’s ‘Study for Survival’, which is a comprehensive UK-wide review of pancreatic cancer services. The report highlighted that survival rates in the UK lag significantly behind the other developed countries, and that 25% of British pancreatic cancer patients experienced symptoms for up to a year before being diagnosed. It made the case for further investment to boost early diagnosis and improve available treatments as well as patient quality of life.

At the launch, John said:

“Britain is very poor at detecting cancer. Nearly 50% of pancreatic cancer patients are only detected when they present themselves at A&E. Late detection makes for poor survival rates. If we could bring our survival rates up to the European average, we would save 5,000 lives a year. We therefore need to do all we can to improve earlier diagnosis.”

“As Chairman of the APPG on Cancer, we are pressing the Government to produce a range of measures to highlight how successful the local NHS is at getting patients to the one-year survival point. Once highlighted, we hope these measures will encourage those local NHS organisations which perform badly to raise their game.”

“Earlier diagnosis is the golden key which could unlock a much brighter future for cancer patients in this country.”

Notes to Editors

1. For further details of the ‘Campaign for Hope’, go to http://www.pancreaticcancer.org.uk/campaign-for-hope.

1. John is Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Cancer.