Statewide Iowa — This is PanCAN Action Week as pancreatic cancer survivors and advocates work to raise awareness about the world’s deadliest form of cancer, and to raise more federal funds for research.
Beth Day of Urbandale, a seven-year pancreatic cancer survivor, says they usually go to Washington DC to lobby lawmakers in person, but due to the pandemic, they’ll be making their case by phone.
Day, who was diagnosed Memorial Day weekend of 2014, says there’s an urgent need for more research funding to develop better treatment options as well as an early detection method to help change patient outcomes.
When federal research funding increases, Day says so do pancreatic cancer survival rates.
When Day was diagnosed, the five year survival rate for pancreatic cancer was only four percent. Today, it’s ten percent. While that’s progress, it’s nothing compared to the five year breast cancer survival rate of 95 percent. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated what researchers can really do when they’re properly motivated and well funded.
The fast moving disease is difficult to diagnose because the symptoms can be vague and are often ignored until it’s too late. They include abdominal pain and back pain, changes in stool, yellowing skin, weight loss, appetite loss, and a feeling of being full after only eating a little food.
