Damien Moore MP has pledged his support to Pancreatic Cancer UK’s campaign demanding faster treatment for people with pancreatic cancer – one in four patients with the disease die within a month of diagnosis making it the quickest killing cancer. The charity is calling for the Government and devolved administrations to set a new ambition to begin treatment for all pancreatic cancer patients across the UK within 20 days of diagnosis by 2024.



At the launch of Pancreatic Cancer UK’s Demand Faster Treatment campaign, Damien Moore MP heard that if avoidable delays to treatment were removed many more pancreatic cancer patients could be eligible for surgery – the only current cure for the disease. To help achieve this ambition the charity is recommending the roll-out of a new treatment programme which in a recent trial successfully reduced patients’ time to surgery from two months to just over two weeks.

Damien Moore MP said: “16 people in Southport and Formby are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year and tragically less than seven per cent won’t survive beyond five years. This is unacceptable and much more needs to be done to improve the outcomes for people with this deadly disease.

“I hope everyone in the Southport will join me in backing this campaign to transform the future for people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and help them receive treatment before it is too late.”

The charity released a report to coincide with the campaign launch which revealed that pancreatic cancer patients who have surgery are ten times more likely to live for five years or more than patients who do not (22.3 per cent compared with 2.3 per cent) (1). However, at least 90 per cent of all patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer do not have surgery (2). . In Cheshire and Merseyside only 13 per cent received surgery.

Currently in England, 57 per cent of pancreatic cancer patients diagnosed at stage one or stage two each year will not receive surgery despite the fact that a significant proportion should be eligible for this potentially life-saving or life-extending treatment (3), despite the fact that a significant proportion should be eligible for these potentially life-saving or life-extending treatments