A man whose wife died from pancreatic cancer is backing a new clinical trial into breath tests which could help detect the disease.<\/p>\n
Andrew Palmer’s wife Jen, 50, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February 2024 and died a month later.<\/p>\n
Pancreatic Cancer UK has invested more than \u00a31.1m, to develop the test into a study. It finds volatile organic compounds in the breath, detectable in cancer patients even at the early stages of disease, it said.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0If there had been a breath test, perhaps that would have been performed when she first presented with symptoms – she may have been eligible for treatment, at least giving her more time,\u00a0\u00bb said Mr Palmer, 55, of Oswestry, Shropshire.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Jen thought she had time and had planned things to do for the kids. We had no idea how little time we had left with her.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
No screening or early detection tests exist for pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Jen had so many different tests: blood tests, scans, endoscopies, but it didn’t pick up the cancer,\u00a0\u00bb Mr Palmer said.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0She was diagnosed too late and was too physically weak for chemotherapy to have given her more time.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0The brutality of the disease can’t be understated, there are no options at late stages – there must be hope for those who will go through this in the future.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
The money invested by Pancreatic Cancer UK will see the test become a multi-centre validation study, and will then seek adoption by the NHS.<\/p>\n
Patients would be recruited from the NHS Urgent Suspected Cancer Pathway \u2013 under which patients should receive an appointment within two weeks of a GP referral.<\/p>\n
The trial would involve more than 6,000 patients with an unknown diagnosis, and would see about 40 trial sites set up at hospitals across England, Scotland and Wales.<\/p>\n
Suzanne, a former theatre nurse from York, was diagnosed with the disease in September 2023, but was eligible for surgery.<\/p>\n
She said she wanted to underline the difference an early diagnosis makes and hoped that in future, the test could save thousands of other families the pain of losing a loved one.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I have no doubt that if my doctor hadn’t taken note of my symptoms and referred me to the hospital where I was quickly sent for a CT scan, things would have been different,\u00a0\u00bb she said.<\/p>\n
Louise Dale from Gresford in Wrexham lost her mum 12 weeks after she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n
She hopes the test can save others.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0We were heartbroken and angry that it had been left so long. From then, Mum went downhill very quickly,\u00a0\u00bb she said.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0On top of her existing symptoms, she suffered from diarrhoea and horrendous nausea… she couldn’t even bear to sit upright. It was truly horrendous.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Diana Jupp, CEO of Pancreatic Cancer UK, said the breath test had the potential to revolutionise the early detection of pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0It is, undoubtedly, the most significant step toward a lifesaving breakthrough in 50 years,\u00a0\u00bb she said.<\/p>\n
Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A man whose wife died from pancreatic cancer is backing a new clinical trial into breath tests which could help detect the disease. Andrew Palmer’s wife Jen, 50, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February 2024 and died a month later. Pancreatic Cancer UK has invested more than \u00a31.1m, to develop the test into a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}