PANCREATIC CANCER RESEARCH

That this House recognises that pancreatic cancer is a devastating disease and is the fifth most common cause of cancer deaths in the UK; acknowledges the extremely low five-year survival rates for pancreatic cancer patients, which is the worst survival rate for any of the 21 most common cancers; notes that these low survival rates are in part due to the disease being diagnosed at too late a stage for surgical intervention; further notes that pancreatic cancer research is currently underfunded and amounts to less than one per cent of the National Cancer Research Institute site-specific annual spending, despite being responsible for five per cent of all cancer deaths each year; further recognises that greater investment is urgently needed in pancreatic cancer research to develop treatments and earlier diagnostic tools for this disease; and therefore calls on the Government to increase research funding to tackle pancreatic cancer to provide hope and support for patients with this dreadful disease.