Pancreatic cancer is expected to be the second deadliest oncological disease in Portugal in 2035, with more than 2,000 deaths per year, a specialist warned this Thursday.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 2,086 deaths from pancreatic cancer were recorded in the country in 2022, making it the fifth cause of mortality from oncological diseases.
Data from 2022 indicate that the cancer that causes the most deaths is lung cancer (5,077), followed by colorectal cancer (4,809), stomach cancer (2,578) and breast cancer (2,578).
As part of World Pancreatic Cancer Day, which is celebrated this Thursday, the president of the Portuguese Pancreas Club, Eduardo Rodrigues Pinto, told the Lusa agency that “some progress has been made in terms of research” to detect cancer. of pancreas at an earlier stage. , but there has been an increase in incidence.
“There has been an increase in this incidence and, therefore, it is thought that by 2035 it will be the second cause of death [por cancro] with more than 2,000 deaths a year. These are the least favorable perspectives that lead us to try to alert the population to try to prevent it or, when it is not preventable, try to diagnose it earlier,” he highlighted.
According to Eduardo Rodrigues Pinto, people with pancreatic cancer “are complex patients” who “must be treated in hospitals with multidisciplinary teams.”
“Hospitals are currently stratified as reference centers and, therefore, this type of pathology must be treated in reference centers. These referral centers include gastroenterologists, surgeons, oncologists and radiologists. All specialists dedicated to this type of pathology,” he highlighted.
For Lusa, the doctor specializing in Gastroenterology explained that “only 20% of patients” are suitable to “undergo curative treatment” through surgery.
“Ideally, all others should be candidates for chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment and, whenever possible, patients should be included in clinical trials. However, we should try to look at the new therapies that are being developed to see if they are more suitable for each patient,” he said.
Eduardo Rodrigues Pinto recalled that pancreatic cancer appears in people over 50 years of age, warning that “there are more and more diagnoses in younger people.”
“There have been some advances in terms of research, such as biomarkers to detect pancreatic cancer at an earlier stage. Ideally, in the future we will have a blood test that allows this diagnosis. Regarding treatments, progress has been made in personalizing treatment for the patient, carrying out research on specific mutations in each tumor, in which we then orient our treatments to the type of mutation that each patient presents,” he said.
The clinician also said that, in addition to colonoscopy starting at age 45, a screening program should be carried out for the general population, because there are people with “a family history of pancreatic cancer, or who have chronic diseases with a genetic predisposition or hereditary.” syndromes.”
“There are some diseases in which there is a greatly increased incidence of pancreatic cancer in this type of person, and these patients, within the scope of the study protocols, could be integrated into screening programs that are carried out at the hospital level,” he said. .
Among the risk factors, smoking is the main one, followed by obesity. Alcohol consumption, especially in patients with chronic pancreatitis, diabetes mellitus, a diet rich in fat and red meat or a sedentary lifestyle are also associated with the disease.
“All of these are risk factors that we must try to explain and educate the population, so that people can change their lifestyle,” he added.
Source: Observadora
