Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month

Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month is an annual global campaign that raises awareness of pancreatic cancer, promotes recognition of its often-subtle symptoms and risk factors, encourages earlier diagnosis, supports research into improved treatments, and advocates for better care and support for patients and families.

Recognize the Signs. Demand Better Care. emphasizes the importance of understanding the possible signs of pancreatic cancer, seeking timely medical assessment, and improving access to accurate diagnosis, appropriate treatment, and supportive care. Because pancreatic cancer may cause few noticeable symptoms in its early stages, awareness of potential warning signs, including jaundice, persistent abdominal or back pain, unexplained weight loss, and loss of appetite, can encourage people to seek medical advice when something is wrong.

The theme also calls for stronger healthcare systems, better diagnostic pathways, continued research, and equitable access to specialist care and treatment. It highlights the importance of supporting people living with pancreatic cancer and their families throughout the illness. Although these symptoms can have many causes and do not necessarily indicate cancer, persistent, unexplained, or concerning changes deserve appropriate medical attention.

• Improve symptom awareness: Explain possible warning signs, including jaundice, persistent upper abdominal or back pain, unexplained weight loss, loss of appetite, and digestive changes.
• Encourage timely medical assessment: Help people understand when persistent, unexplained, or worsening symptoms warrant professional evaluation.
• Improve awareness of risk factors: Explain the roles of smoking, older age, family history, certain inherited genetic conditions, chronic pancreatitis, obesity, and diabetes. Clarify that having a risk factor does not mean someone will develop the disease.
• Promote appropriate investigation: Encourage clinicians to assess concerning symptoms and investigate them according to the patient's clinical presentation and risk profile.
• Advance earlier detection research: Support research into better diagnostic approaches and the identification of people who could benefit from targeted surveillance.
• Improve access to specialist care: Promote timely diagnosis, multidisciplinary assessment, appropriate treatment, and referral to experienced pancreatic cancer teams where available.
• Expand treatment and research opportunities: Raise awareness of advances in surgery, chemotherapy, targeted therapies, immunotherapy where appropriate, and clinical trials.
• Support patients and caregivers: Address pain, nutrition, emotional well-being, practical caregiving needs, and access to palliative care when needed.
• Reduce inequalities: Highlight disparities in awareness, diagnostic resources, treatment access, and outcomes across different populations and healthcare systems.
• Increase research investment: Encourage sustained funding for prevention research, early detection, treatment development, and supportive care.

• Pancreatic cancer
• Pancreatic adenocarcinoma
• Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors
• Pancreas
• Jaundice
• Unexplained weight loss
• Abdominal pain
• Back pain
• Loss of appetite
• Digestive symptoms
• Pancreatic cancer risk factors
• Family history
• Inherited cancer predisposition
• Genetic testing
• Chronic pancreatitis
• Diabetes
• Diagnostic imaging
• Endoscopic ultrasound
• Biopsy
• Pancreatic surgery
• Chemotherapy
• Targeted therapy
• Immunotherapy
• Cancer research
• Cancer awareness