On this 15th of November, 2018, all patients, families and communities unite for World Pancreatic Cancer Day. This day, we celebrate the common work through awareness-raising, research and policies to fight pancreatic cancer. We also want to dedicate this day to those who suffer from this terrible cancer. We at Pancreatic Cancer Europe want to support this effort and think of all the families in need of European and national action. Our work in the past months has led to the creation of several tools and documents which are designed to foster new policies addressing this disease.
Our inequality report presents the state of pancreatic cancer across Europe, with angles on diagnosis, research, national policies and unmet needs. It emphasises the inequalities that exist in Europe and the need for a harmonised policy to offer the same chances to all European citizens. Our heatmap, accessible online, also presents in an interactive way those inequalities by giving key information specific to each country. So far, eight countries are referenced, but we hope to add more, thanks to your help.
By 2020, pancreatic cancer will be the second killer cancer in Europe. Today should be about thinking to the future and how we can reverse the trend of increasing mortality and incidence in order to avoid this fearful prediction. Every action towards a new policy, every conversation to raise awareness, every breakthrough in diagnosing pancreatic cancer is a new step taken in our fight”.