Pancreatic cancer will be, by 2030, the second leading cause of death by cancer after lung cancer, according to the World Health Organization. In our country, around 1,500 new cases are diagnosed each year, a figure that the surgeon Rui Maio, clinical director and head of the Digestive Cancer Treatment Center at Hospital da Luz Lisboa, also admits that will grow significantly in the coming years, in Portugal. «The prevalence is clearly rising, worryingly, so it is crucial that we are well prepared to meet this challenge» , says the surgeon, on World Pancreatic Cancer Day. Rui Maio, whose area of expertise in surgery is precisely pancreatic and esophageal cancer, explains that «lifestyle, obesity and the rise of diabetes and smoking» are among the main causes for this increased incidence of pancreatic cancer. «Surgery is currently the only potentially curative therapeutic option. However, at the time of diagnosis, only about 20% of the tumors are considered resectable» . Undoubtedly, the main reason for this poor prognosis is the diagnosis of the disease at an advanced stage, when the tumor has already grown. Therefore, the expert points out, «in order to improve the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer, we must invest in the early diagnosis of premalignant lesions» . On the other hand, it is crucial, he adds, to concentrate the treatment of this pathology in reference centers, «that bring together specialists from several fields, appropriate technology and multidisciplinary work, and the latest knowledge of the state of the art» in pancreatic cancer. «This is precisely what we have today at Hospital da Luz Lisboa. A highly specialized reference center in this area that addresses and treats patients comprehensively, achieving rapid diagnosis and proposing the most appropriate therapeutic approaches to each case» , says the clinical director of HLL, explaining: «Hospital da Luz Lisboa has a multidisciplinary team dedicated to the treatment of this disease, committed in the understanding of tumor biology, with the necessary means for its early diagnosis and capable of treating this disease according to the state of the art» . And adds: «With Hospital Beatriz Ângelo we are part of the reference center for the treatment of Hepatobiliopancreatic cancer, recognized by the Ministry of Health, and we are involved in several multicenter and international clinical trials, that put us at the forefront of clinical cancer research» . In addition, it is one of the two Portuguese hospitals integrated in the ERAS Program, dedicated, among others, to patients with pancreatic cancer, for the preparation and rehabilitation of patients undergoing cancer surgery, which aims to enhance the efficacy of treatments and improve the health of patients before and after such treatments.
