New initiative launched to tackle pancreatic cancer

As the World Pancreatic Cancer Day 2020 falls on Nov 19, Journal of Pancreatology and Servier China jointly kicked off online world pancreatic cancer day public awareness campaign & WISH project, or the first China pancreatic cancer patients' survival situation project, on Sunday. The program aims at raising awareness of the disease, promoting early diagnosis and treatment, and increasing benefits for patients.

Pancreatic cancer is known as "the king of cancer" due to its insidious symptoms, high malignancy and mortality rate. According to the National Cancer Center's data in 2018, pancreatic cancer's five-year survival rate was only 7.2 percent in 2014, far lower than China's current overall cancer survival rate of about 40.5 percent.

Zhao Yupei, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, honorary president of Peking Union Medical College Hospital and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Pancreatology, chaired the online event, with many top pancreatic cancer experts participating.

Stephane Mascarau, general manager of Servier China, announced the launch of the first investigation project during the online event.

Zhao said public activities raising awareness of pancreatic cancer will be the key to improving survival and the treatment rate.

"For patients with pancreatic cancer, understanding the details of their diagnosis and treatment, as well as their daily disease management, can help doctors make better decisions, which facilitate both patients and doctors," said Liu Qiaofei, a doctor from Peking Union Medical College Hospital.

The survey will base on a combination of offline questionnaires and a big data pool, which is expected to collect the information from 1,000 patients and their family members, 500 oncology doctors and 50 clinical pharmacists.

It will thoroughly reveal patients' current situations, needs and expectations in terms of diagnosis and treatment, financial burden, and life care.

The research will also take into account data from the disease prevention and control authorities to comprehensively summarize the current diagnosis and treatment status in China.

The survey is expected to last throughout May 2021, to deliver a whitepaper on pancreatic cancer patients' survival situation in China, which, a first of its kind, will be of help to the comprehensive improvement of pancreatic cancer care and the establishment of standard diagnosis and treatment norms.

"Meeting the needs of patients is at the core of all Servier activities, and because of this, the company has made fighting against cancer as one of its core strategies," said Mascarau.

About 40 percent of the company's annual R&D investment is in oncology, he said, adding Servier China is accelerating the introduction of its pancreatic cancer treatment liposome irinotecan injection.

As a treatment for metastatic pancreatic cancer, liposome irinotecan is already available in many countries and regions including the United States, Europe, Korea and Japan.