Each year around 1900 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in Australia and almost all are dead within the year. Panceatic cancer is the 4th most likely cancer to cause death with only 5% living beyond five years of diagnosis. The diagnosis of actor Patrick Swayze with late-stage pancreatic cancer graphically documented the quick physical deterioration of the disease.
The Australian Pancreatic Cancer Genome Initiative is the Australian project arm of an association of research organisations in 11 countries, known as the International Cancer Genome Consortium and their collective aim is to catalogue 25,000 full genomes of the 50 most common types of cancer and make the information freely available online. The public can see summaries of the data and researchers worldwide can access detailed reports.
Last week Australia and three other members of the ICGC were the first to publish results online.
The NSW Cancer Council has a DVD on Pancreatic Cancer that can be viewed on their website.
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