Meeting of the Parliament 05 November 2024
I am grateful to my colleague Clare Adamson for securing this incredibly important debate during pancreatic cancer awareness month and ahead of world pancreatic cancer day. Since being elected in 2021, I have spoken in three debates brought to the chamber by my colleagues Clare Adamson and Willie Coffey during pancreatic cancer awareness month, and I will always feel that it is incredibly important to speak on the issue. I also extend my sincere thanks to wonderful charities such as Pancreatic Cancer Action Scotland and Pancreatic Cancer UK and to the other dedicated organisations that are at the forefront of raising awareness and fighting for better outcomes for those with pancreatic cancer.
Unfortunately, pancreatic cancer is a silent killer, because its early symptoms are difficult to spot, and only one in four people who is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer survives for more than a year. That is why raising awareness is so crucial to early detection and to improving patient experience and overall outcomes. It is therefore important to reiterate the common symptoms, which are: a yellow tinge to the skin or eyes; darker urine; paler poo; itchy skin; loss of appetite or losing weight without trying to; feeling tired or having no energy; a high temperature; and feeling hot or shivery.
Education is a powerful tool in the fight against pancreatic cancer and, although our understanding of the disease is somewhat limited, we know that factors such as smoking, obesity or a family history of the disease can increase the risk of getting it.
According to Pancreatic Cancer UK, about 900 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in Scotland each year and more than 10,500 are diagnosed across the UK. They are our loved ones, friends and community members. Those figures are bleak, but it is important to highlight them so that we can call more urgently for greater action, because we need to do more.
Despite those challenges, there are glimmers of hope. We in Scotland are fortunate to have some of the best researchers and medical institutions working tirelessly to fight the disease. It was good to read about the University of Glasgow and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s recent pancreatic cancer research programme, which will evaluate a new drug combination as a first-line treatment for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer. That is a really important step in the pursuit of new treatments to improve the outcomes for individuals who are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and I really hope that it will prove to be successful.
The Scottish Government is committed to making progress through the Scottish HepatoPancreatoBiliary Network, which has been awarded £653,000 over two years to redesign the pancreatic and liver cancer treatment pathways. It is the first service in the United Kingdom to deliver a national approach to improving the pathways of both pancreatic and hepatocellular cancer patients. The project has resulted in significant improvements in patient care, across all 14 health boards, in the majority of performance indicators that are measured. It is welcome that consideration is being given to exploring the options for sustained delivery of its positive outcomes after March 2025.
I conclude by paying tribute to my constituents who have sadly lost their lives because of pancreatic cancer: Helen, Donald, Billy and Christine will be forever missed by family, friends and loved ones, but they will never be forgotten. We must work together in their memory, and in the memory of others, to do everything that we can to raise awareness of this disease and to push for better survival rates.
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