In February last year my sister Sarah died from pancreatic cancer. She was 44. Her condition had been diagnosed only 6 months earlier and before then she did not have any symptoms to make her aware of her illness.

For many types of cancer, survival rates have been improving:

- 95% of men diagnosed with testicular cancer now survive 5 years or more.

- 80% of women diagnosed with breast cancer now survive 5 years or more.

For pancreatic cancer this is not the case:

- 3% of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer survive 5 years or more. This statistic has barely changed in 30 years.

There is no early detection test and treatment is limited. Because symptoms are initially vague and generally don't appear until the disease is well advanced, the average survival time after diagnosis is 6 months.

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