Pancreas - public knowledge, awareness and ignorance, an attempt to initiate a campaign against pancreatic cancer

• Main Author: Lew, Ruth En-Yi
• Other Authors: Thirumaran s/o Thanabalu
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/71530
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Importance: Pancreatic carcinoma is a deadly tumour with one of the worst cancer survival rates. Despite leaps of advancements in cancer therapy, the outlook for patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer has not improved in 40 years. Only a small percentage of patients presenting with pancreatic carcinoma are eligible for curative surgery. With majority of patients presenting with advanced disease, palliative treatment seems to be the only option. However, till date, there is no feasible screening program designed to detect pancreatic cancer at an early stage. Public awareness of the disease is low, affecting the time of diagnosis, and thereby further compromising the patient’s prognosis. Objective: Hence, this study aims to investigate the level of public awareness, knowledge and perception that Singaporeans have about pancreatic cancer. Design, Setting & Participants: A prospective analysis was performed on 480 survey respondents, aged 21 years and above, from 16 January 2017 to 31 March 2017, in a hospital setting. Results: Public awareness on pancreatic cancer was found to be severely lacking, particularly in groups with lower education levels. Conclusion & Reference: The results would provide insight on how the Ministry of Health (MOH) and health professionals can plan public health campaigns, in raising awareness on pancreatic cancer. This would lead to earlier detection of pancreatic cancer, thereby improving the prognostic outlook for patients.