Diabetic Paul Williams says his pancreas is slowly eating itself after doctors discovered a small mass a few years ago.
He does not know if the tumour is cancerous at this stage, but says it developed after a serious bout of pancreatitis.
Father of two Paul Williams signed onto a pilot trial which is investigating how to diagnose deadly pancreatic cancer early enough to save lives. (Supplied: Paul Williams)
The 58-year-old Victorian salesman says he has been on a crash course ever since learning about the role the vital organ plays in producing insulin and regulating blood sugar levels in the body.
He is the first patient to sign onto an Australia-wide pilot study being run by Queensland’s QIMR Berghofer, which is investigating how to diagnose deadly pancreatic cancer early enough to save lives.
“I just happened to be going down the Google rabbit hole and just put my name down for any sort of treatment, so I am sort of looking forward to seeing how it goes,” he said.
“I said I’d be happy to be a guinea pig if it can help someone else live in the future, that would be absolutely awesome.
“Because if it is cancer and you don’t get on to it early then your life expectancy goes downhill pretty quickly, and it is far too late.”
Mr Williams said he also had an uncle who died from pancreatic cancer, and wanted to raise awareness.
“He had a shocking last six months of his life, so if I can also make people aware of it through this study, that is great,” he said.
Pancreatic cancer among worst variants
The research is being led by Professor Rachel Neale who confirmed pancreatic cancer was notoriously difficult to detect, but if found early enough could sometimes be cured.
She said pancreatic cancer had “one of the worst survival rates of all cancers”, last year killing more than 4,000 people.
“And that’s largely because it’s diagnosed late, unlike common cancers like breast cancer,” Professor Neale said.
“We can’t do screening of the entire population, but there may be subgroups of the population who are at a somewhat higher risk where the benefit of screening may outweigh the costs and harms.”
Rachel Neale says pancreatic cancer has “one of the worst” survival rates and is often diagnosed late. (Supplied)
Professor Neale said it was a small proportion of diabetics who got the disease due to a tumour in the pancreas — around one in 175 adults over the age of 50.
The study is the first step into investigating whether pancreatic cancer screening — via a non-invasive CT scan — could help save lives by early detection or warning signs.
Loading…Earlier diagnosis improves outcomes
According to Diabetes Australia, 1.5 million people are known to be living with diabetes.
It is diagnosed when blood sugar levels are high due to insulin produced by the pancreas not working effectively, and/or the cells of the body do not respond to insulin effectively.
Brisbane woman wants people to know early signs of pancreatic cancerÂ
Over time the condition progresses and the pancreas does not produce enough insulin.
CEO of Pankind Pancreatic Cancer Australia Michelle Stewart said pancreatic cancer is currently the third-leading cause of cancer death in Australia, and it was recently classified as a common cancer.
She said cases of the disease have doubled in the last 20 years.
“A study like this is really important because we know that people who are detected earlier with pancreatic cancer have better outcomes,” Ms Stewart said.
Michelle Stewart says the study could help inform future work on diabetes and cancer treatment. (Supplied)
She said the symptoms of pancreatic cancer can be generic.
“It can be back pain, indigestion, it could be jaundice … and sudden onset diabetes.”
“I guess this is the confusing part with pancreatic cancer and diabetes and we know that there is some relationship, but it would be important to study exactly what that link looks like,” she said.
Ms Stewart says the study could inform further research in the space.
“If we can understand what the risk factors are for pancreatic cancer, we can start looking at those people who might be at higher risk earlier.
“We think there will be better survival opportunities and much better quality of life for people in the future,” she said.
Ms Stewart says cases of pancreatic cancer have almost doubled in the past 20 years. (ABC News: Jake Grant)
The Pancreatic Cancer New Onset Diabetes Study called PaCNOD is looking for recently diagnosed sufferers of Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes aged over 55, who have not previously had pancreatic cancer or their pancreas removed for another reason.
If it delivers reliable results a large scale study would follow.
Registration information on the PaCNOD Pilot Study for patients and their doctors can be found here.