£1 million awarded for research into pancreatic cancer  

Six exciting new research projects totalling just under £1 million have been awarded grants by the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund –thanks to the tireless fundraising of the charity’s supporters across the UK.

The awards bring the total number of research projects funded by the UK’s only dedicated funder of pancreatic cancer research to 27 since 2006 – some £4 million worth, and all of these funded entirely by donations.

Says PCRF founder and CEO, Maggie Blanks: “To be able to invest £1 million in a single funding round is phenomenal, and I hope all our supporters who’ve fundraised for us understand just what an amazing achievement they’ve enabled through their hard work.”

Pancreatic cancer has the worst survival rate of any common cancer – just 3% of those diagnosed will live for 5 years. With non-specific symptoms only generally presenting when the cancer is already advanced, up to 90% of patients are diagnosed too late for surgery, which is the only potential cure.

In the past few years, research teams from around the world, including those funded by PCRF, have made great strides in unravelling and understanding the fundamental molecular mechanisms of this highly aggressive disease. The Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund’s Scientific Advisory Panel believes that this should be matched by funding projects that are more ‘translational’, such as those progressing towards clinical trials and closer to delivering patient benefits.

Says Professor Nick Lemoine, Chair of PCRF’s Scientific Advisory Panel: “I am genuinely optimistic about the progress being made in pancreatic cancer research. We have much new knowledge and many new technologies at our disposal that we didn’t have just a few years ago. I believe that it is possible to achieve the goal of doubling the survival rate for patients with this cancer within the next few years, and the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund is enabling the UK to play a significant role in this.”

Funding has been awarded to Dr Thorsten Hagemann, Dr Yaohe Wang and Dr John Marshall carryng out three separate projects at Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary, University of London; Dr Steve Pereira from University College London; Professor Lindy Durrant, from The University of Nottingham; and Professor Caroline Dive and her team, from Cancer Research UK's Paterson Institute based at The University of Manchester.