Pancreatic Cancer Debate
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Stuart Andrew
Main Page: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)Department Debates - View all Stuart Andrew's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
Pancreatic Cancer
Stuart Andrew Excerpts(10 years, 9 months ago)
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Eric Ollerenshaw
The hon. Gentleman hits the nail on the head. It is of course a UK issue, and one of the concerns is the regional variation in performance on early diagnosis and the impact that is having. We want to get rid of that.
I want to talk today about the new drug Abraxane. The vast majority of pancreatic cancer patients are diagnosed so late that the benefit of any new drug can be measured only in months, rather than years. Our worry is that, compared with other cancers, that benefit might be deemed insufficient simply because it is measured in months and might not register highly on the quality-adjusted life years measurement scale.
That is why Pancreatic Cancer UK launched its Two More Months campaign, which highlights what patients would have been able to do with two more months, which is the average additional survival time provided by Abraxane. I have a few quotes from relatives of those who have died from pancreatic cancer:
“Two more months would have been a significant amount of time for Nicola, only 25 years old herself, to spend with her four year old daughter”.
That was from Chris, Nicola’s brother.
“Two more months would have meant my daughter Gemma might have got to wear her wedding dress and walk down the aisle with Adam”.
That was from Debbie, Gemma’s mum.
“Two more months would have seen my wife Jill finish her Open University Modern Languages degree and attend an international social work conference in Buenos Aires, both of which she would have been very proud of”.
That was from Dave, Jill’s husband.
“Two more months would have seen Andy and I celebrate our second wedding anniversary, and given us more time to prepare for what was to come”.
That was from Lynne.
For me, two more months would have meant one last Christmas with my partner—
Stuart Andrew (Pudsey) (Con)
May I pay tribute to my hon. Friend, who has done tremendous work on this issue and been a great advocate for all those affected by pancreatic cancer? I know from my experience of working in the hospice movement that time is the thing that all patients want. If that drug can provide just a little more time, surely it is something that all those families should be given.