The Road Toward Better Care
To improve cancer care in Europe, Dr. Carrato said: “Reference centers should be a requirement in health policy programs because the outcomes are much better than in centers which only perform fewer surgeries, and Pancreatic Cancer Europe is working with the EU in this direction.”
Finland is a country that appears to have succeeded in this regard. Its 2005 Health Care Act, for example, ensures that cancer patients are able to receive care in one of its five specialized hospitals.
More research funding is also needed. According to Pancreatic Cancer Europe, only 2% of EU funding on cancer is spent on pancreatic cancer.
The American Cancer Society’s Cancer Facts & Figures 2024 makes room for some optimism, with the 5-year survival rate in the United States jumping to 13% from 6% in the society’s 2014 report, as a result of earlier diagnoses and more personalized treatment. But, even with potentially longer survival rates, said Dr. Löhr, “we are still on the trajectory of pancreatic cancer being number two for cancer deaths by 2030.”
“We need more money on research, centralized surgery, and networking between European countries,” said Dr. Carrato. “This networking would need more money for prevention, better diagnosis, and treatment. The problem is pancreatic cancer incidence is increasing and mortality is also in parallel, and we are not making real progress in this scenario.”
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.