Pancreatic cancer stands alone as an increasingly deadly threat to both men and women in Europe, a study has shown.

Experts called for priority to be given to preventing and treating the terrible disease, which is predicted to kill 82,300 people in the EU this year.

While proportionately more people are dying from pancreatic cancer, the new research recorded falling death rates for all but one of seven other types of the disease.

The exception was lung cancer – but only in women, due to the fact that generations of them took up smoking later than men.

Since overall cancer mortality in Europe peaked in 1988, it will have dropped by 26 per cent for men and 20 per cent for women in 2014, say the researchers.

The new figures translate to an estimated 250,000 deaths avoided compared with 1988, according to the findings published in the journal Annals of Oncology.

Less than five per cent of pancreatic cancer patients survive for five years after diagnosis

Lead scientist Carlo La Vecchia, from the University of Milan, said: “Our predictions for 2014 confirm that pancreatic death rates are continuing to increase overall.

“This year we predict that 41,300 men and 41,000 women will die from pancreatic cancer – an age standardised rate of eight and 5.6 deaths respectively per 100,000 of the population. This represents a small but steady increase since the beginning of this century; between 2000-2004, death rates from the disease were 7.6 per 100,000 men and five per 100,000 women.

“The increased death rate is cause for concern, because the prognosis for this tumour is bleak, with less than five per cent of pancreatic cancer patients surviving for five years after diagnosis.

“As so few patients survive, the increase in deaths is very closely related to the increase in incidence of this disease. This makes pancreatic cancer a priority for finding better ways to prevent and control it and better treatments.”

Data based on death certificates and population were collected for stomach, bowel, pancreatic, lung, breast, uterus (including cervical), and prostate cancers, as well as leukaemias.

The analysis showed that absolute numbers of cancer deaths had increased since 2009 when the last mortality figures for the EU were published by the World Health Organisation.

What is driving the worsening trend for pancreatic cancer is unclear, but major risk factors for the disease include smoking, alcohol consumption and family history.

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