Pancreatic cancer is one of the most fatal cancers around the world

Wednesday 24 July 2013, Amsterdam

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most fatal cancers around the world, with the highest incidence and mortality rates found in developed countries (Michaud, 2004). This report provides an overview  of the risk factors and the global and historical epidemiological trends for pancreatic cancer in the six major markets (6MM) (US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and UK). It includes a 10-year epidemiology forecast of the incident cases of pancreatic cancer segmented by sex, age  (in  five-year  increments  beginning  at  15  years  and  endin≥g85atyears),  stage  at diagnosis, the proportion of incident cases that undergo resection, locally-advanced unresectable
cases, metastatic cases, and biomarker mutation type (KRAS and HER2) in these markets, along with the prevalent cases.

The risk of developing pancreatic cancer is associated with increasing age, as more than 75% of pancreatic cancer patients are over the age of 60 years (SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 2012). Tobacco smoking is one of the most common risk factors for pancreatic cancer, as smokers have a two-fold increased risk of developing the disease compared with nonsmokers (Lowenfels and Maisonneuve, 2006). Due to the short survival period and high mortality for pancreatic cancer, patients with the disease are less likely to suffer from comorbidities than patients with other types of cancer.

North America and western Europe have the highest incidence of pancreatic cancer compared with the rest of the world. The fatal nature of pancreatic cancer keeps the survival rates low and the duration of illness short. The low survival rate associated with pancreatic cancer is caused by the complexity of the disease, along with diagnosis usually occurring during the advanced stages, as the early symptoms typically go unnoticed. In the US, the five-year survival rate of pancreatic cancer is 4.8%, while the 10-year survival rate is only 3.6%; these survival rates showcase that the majority of pancreatic cancer mortality occurs within the first five years of diagnosis (Ries et al., 2007).
 
This report forecasts that the US and Germany will have the highest number of incident cases of pancreatic cancer in 2022, with 53,610 and 27,629 cases, respectively. Epidemiologists also expect that the number of prevalent cases of pancreatic cancer in the6MM covered will increase during the forecast period (2012–2022) to a total of 59,675 cases. The stage at diagnosis for pancreatic cancer is correlated with the availability of screening tests and the ability to identify early symptoms. Due to the inability to identify early indications of the illness, pancreatic cancer cases are most commonly diagnosed in Stage IV. Greater research in prevention and early diagnostic testing can help reduce the incidence of the disease. Through early detection, it may be possible to stop the spread of the cancer to other organsand decrease the overall mortality.