Life-changing medication not being given to 40% of pancreatic cancer patients

A charity has warned that two-fifths of pancreatic cancer patients are not being prescribed medication recommended to improve their lives, due to a lack of awareness.

Without pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT), eating can be painful, resulting in a loss of appetite and weight loss.

According to Pancreatic Cancer UK, 50 per cent of patients with the disease die within three months of diagnosis.

The charity’s Anna Jewell said “It really seems to be awareness of needing to get these tablets to people with pancreatic cancer and awareness and understanding of the fact that they will become very malnourished and not be able to tolerate treatment if they don’t get access to these tablets.

“A simple tablet that is available, that isn’t costly, that can really make a difference, and a significant difference, in people’s quality of life when they’ve been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.”

Keith Roberts, pancreatic cancer lead at the Royal College of Surgeons, published a study in 2018 comparing patients who had PERT with those who did not.

“It didn’t matter what the scenario was” he said.

“If you looked at people having surgery, people having chemotherapy, people having no treatment at all, the survival was pretty much twice as long in the group that received PERT.

“If you’re not getting the goodness from your food, how can you get through treatment and how can you fight this cancer?”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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