Anyone who has known someone diagnosed with pancreatic cancer knows what a terrible disease this is. Among the most deadly forms of cancer, it has a five-year survival rate of just 5 percent. It's so deadly, in part, because early detection is difficult. There's a high risk of complications if the pancreas is examined directly, so routine inspections for at-risk patients usually are not an option. In fact, only 7 percent of people with pancreatic cancer are diagnosed in the earliest stages of the disease, when the cancer is still confined to the pancreas. More than half of all people with the disease are not diagnosed until the cancer has already metastasized.
Now a new technique is being developed that will help detect this terrible killer while it's still in the early stages and when treatment is more effective. This development could give hope to tens of thousands of people.
Let's hope and pray that it does.
RLC