Screening Could Improve Pancreas Cancer Survival

LONDON (Reuters) - Screening patients who have a high risk of developing pancreatic cancer could treble survival rates of the deadly illness, British scientists said on Tuesday.

Pancreatic cancer affects about 216,000 people worldwide each year. Because it is often detected late, only about 2 percent of patients are alive five years after diagnosis.

But researchers at the University of Liverpool in England estimate that screening people who are likely to develop the illness, and catching it early, could increase the number of patients suitable for surgery.

"Monitoring people at high risk is a key step towards this goal, and could lead to a significant improvement in overall survival for the disease," Professor John Neoptolemos, a professor of surgery at the university, said in a statement released in London.

He told a conference at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) in Birmingham, England, that testing people with a genetic predisposition to the illness for pre-cancerous changes to their pancreas could help to detect the disease in its early stages.

"Screening people at high risk of developing pancreatic cancer will help not only those families with clusters of pancreatic cancer -- it will help scientists pinpoint the genetic faults that cause all cases of the disease," said Neoptolemos, who is running the UK arm of a pan-European study to find out more about the genes linked to the illness.

An estimated 10 percent of patients with pancreatic cancer have a genetic mutation that predisposes them to the condition. Genes called KRAS and p53 are implicated in the most common type of pancreatic cancer, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France.

Having three blood relatives who have had pancreatic cancer also raises the odds of suffering from the illness.

"Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to treat. Five-year survival is lower than for any other cancer, so any improvements are significant," said Professor Nick Lemoine, the director of the Cancer Research UK Centre at Barts and The London hospital trust.