This was the story of my uncle. He was 48 years old. He was unmarried and had no kids, yet his death has influenced me far more than either of us would have expected. His story is shared by thousands. According to the American Cancer Society, 53,000 people were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2017, and 43,000 people died. Compare this to breast cancers 41,000 deaths (American Cancer Society).
One of the primary reasons for pancreatic cancer's high death toll is that there is not a consistent way to diagnose it in the early stages. Scientific American described pancreatic cancer as such, "Pancreatic cancer is typically diagnosed at a late stage because it doesn't cause symptoms until it's too late... the most common symptoms usually start after the tumor is a significant size. By then, chances are, it has metastasized" (Scientific American). Pancreatic cancer has the particularly horrid attack that starves the body. My overweight uncle looked like a holocaust survivor at his death. And despite its death rate, it is one of the only cancers to have seen no significant improvement in life expectancy. Pancreatic Cancer Action published a figure showing that pancreatic cancer survival rates had increased by only one point over 40 years. Compare this again to breast cancer, which had a 24 point increase in survival rates over the same period.
There are numerous complex reasons for this difference in both death rate and stagnation. Funding is one of these key issues. Pancreatic cancer received just under 100 million dollars in funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 2011, and in 2016 received about 150 million. Breast cancer received 625 million in 2011 and 520 million in 2016 (NCI). Despite the narrowing of the gap, cancer that kills fewer receives more than thrice the funding. More funding and research need to go towards developing early-stage detection, better treatment methods, and other work to extend the life expectancy.
My uncle has had a profound impact on my life. In many ways, what I do on a daily basis is inspired by him. Death has a way of reminding us both of our mortality and of things we regret about the way we lived our lives. Despite the values of these lessons, steps must be taken to treat disease. I do not wish to see anybody suffer the way my uncle did. Unless research steps up for pancreatic cancer, they will.
References:
Moyer, M. W. (2011, October 05). Why Is Pancreatic Cancer So Deadly? Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-is-pancreatic-cancer-so-deadly-steve-jobs/
American Cancer Society. (n.d.). Cancer Facts & Figures 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://www.cancer.org/research/cancer-facts-statistics/all-cancer-facts-figures/cancer-facts-figures-2018.html
American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts and Figures 2017. Atlanta: American Cancer Society. 2017
NCI. (n.d.). Research Funding. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://www.cancer.gov/about-nci/budget/fact-book/data/research-funding
I’m so sorry to hear about your uncle. Regarding funding though, from our talk last week, while pancreatic cancer kills more people in absolute numbers, it was still relatively rare when compared with breast cancer. It’s definitely a major challenge we absolutely need to tackle, but comparing its funding against historically more common types for which treatments have continued to improve is not the best argument. We would all love to see an expansion in cancer funding because pancreatic cancer patients need that 24% survival increase too. We especially need earlier diagnostic methods because, as you pointed out, it often isn’t detected until too late for better survival rates. 93% fatal is far too high to accept as progress even if it is a marginal improvement over the historical rate. Before that increased survival rate for breast cancer, in absolute terms, killed more people, and that is part of why it had so much higher funding.
ReplyDeleteYou raise a valid criticism. I definitely came across harsher here than I intended. I know several people that have been directly and indirectly affected by breast cancer. It is frustrating to watch as certain diseases get the spotlight and great amounts of funding while others are ignored. Cancer is far from the only area where this has applied. It is also frustrating to know that virtually nothing could have been done for my uncle. As should be obvious by the time stamps, this post was written shortly after the one year anniversary. The emotions were certainly back in my head when I wrote this. We must strive to do better. Breast cancer is a fantastic example of what can happen when a nation is unified against a problem. I hope that pancreatic cancer will be addressed in a similar way.
DeleteI'm so sorry to hear about your loss. I understand the pain of losing a loved one to a cancer that barely receives funding, but there's always a larger picture. Pancreatic cancer definitely deserves more research and more funding, but I also understand why other cancers receive more funding from the government. Earlier diagnostic tools sounds to be the most promising route up front before spending large amounts of grants on researching an aggressive form of treatment that may not even work. If we can catch this form of cancer earlier, do you think that would increase the survival rate for patients? Maybe there is a routine check up that could be implemented; something similar to breast cancer? I'm no expert when it comes to these cancers, but if they can find a way to identify these characteristics earlier without symptoms, then maybe such an aggressive form of treatment won't be necessary and other methods will have the same effect on this specific cancer as it does on others.
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