November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month and November 17th is World Pancreatic Cancer Day.
One of the main goals of the iHelp project is to help raise awareness for this disease. It is a global day of action that gives us a unique opportunity to make sure our voices are heard. Shining a little more light on this disease would make us proud.
No one knows the exact causes of pancreatic cancer though research has shown that people with certain risk factors are more likely to develop pancreatic cancer. Some of the risk factors are smoking, diabetes, family history, chronic pancreatitis, dietary habits, and even ethnicity or religious background, since studies in the United States have shown that pancreatic cancer is more common in the African-American population (maybe due to socioeconomic factors and smoking) and in Ashkenazi Jews than the rest of the population (maybe because of a particular inherited mutation in the breast cancer gene (BRCA2) which runs in some Jewish families).
Research through clinical trials already has led to advances in treatment methods, and researchers continue to search for more effective approaches to treat this disease. Likewise, we all in the iHelp project aim to make an important contribution to medical science by helping health professionals learn more about the disease and patients benefit from new treatments.
During the project, 5 pilots are conducted that aimed to:
(i) provide individuals with information about risk factors for future disease
(ii) raise awareness of health conditions
(iii) educate individuals on how to prevent life-threatening diseases like Pancreatic Cancer
(iv) define the personalized therapeutic strategies that can maximize their efficacy and reduce the risks of offside effects in patients affected by Pancreatic Cancer, bringing significant improvements in terms of Quality of Life (QoL) of high-risk individuals
For too long, pancreatic cancer was a neglected type of cancer, but that’s changing now with initiatives such as World Pancreatic Cancer Day. Together we are helping bring greater attention, raise funds for research, support patients, and, ultimately create better outcomes for this disease.
It’s about time you learned the risks and symptoms of pancreatic cancer — there is no early detection test, so pay attention to your body.
IT’S ABOUT TIME TO RAISE AWARENESS!
Let’s keep celebrating World Pancreatic Cancer Day and raising awareness together every single year until the disease is largely curable!
