National charity hopes to bridge gap in pancreatic cancer care with newly accredited program. Globalnews.ca

For Stephanie Condon-Oldrew, founder of Craig’s Cause Pancreatic Cancer Society, one patient said it best: Speed ​​matters.

It can mean the difference between getting treatment pancreatic cancer or none.

“Patients with symptoms of pancreatic cancer are often misdiagnosed or may take several months to diagnose,” Condon-Oldrew said. But now there is an informative program that can make a world of difference.

Among cancer diagnoses, pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality rate in Canada.

But progress has been made and the survival rate is now 11 percent. It may sound small but according to pancreatic surgeon Mike Moser, that number is double what it was 22 years ago.

“Chemotherapy has probably made the biggest progress out of anything,” Moser said. “Five years ago we didn’t really have chemotherapy that could shrink pancreatic cancer. Now we do.”

Enhanced healing means more advanced procedures. Moser is one of two surgeons in Canada who can perform the nano knife procedure.

“With the help of a CT scan or ultrasound, the needles are placed,” Moser said. “What they do is essentially four of them will frame around the tumor and the machine will deliver a very high electric current for a very short period of time. This is repeated about 100 times and what happens is that it is in that frame.” will make tiny holes in the cells inside the cells where those electrodes are placed. These holes in the cells will become like leaky vessels and begin to loose their electrolytes, proteins and take up water. Within a few hours They’ll die.”

With better treatments and advanced procedures, the question remains why doctors are taking so long to diagnose a person. Moser believes this is due to a lack of information.

For the first time in Canada, this information is now available to doctors nationwide and is completely online.

“(Training) can be taken at home or in the office and will take about an hour to complete,” Kondon-Oldrew said. “It’s interactive and they get a certificate and hours to license.”

They say it is this small step in the care of patients with pancreatic cancer that will make all the difference for patients and their families.

For more information about the course visit Craig’s Cause Pancreatic Cancer Society website,

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Advocates push province forward for pancreatic cancer drug, as predicted rise in late-stage diagnoses

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