By Jamie Doggett 
Receive monthly updates on the ongoing pancreatic cancer conversation from HCPs online. Sign up for these insights to be delivered direct to your inbox.
As we entered 2020, healthcare professionals continued to engage in conversation relating to a high profile diagnosis of U.S. Representative John Lewis with stage IV pancreatic cancer.
In early January, HCPs were very enthusiastic in sharing a milestone in pancreatic cancer survival rate. The American Cancer Society and National Cancer Institute published results reporting the five-year survival rate of pancreatic cancer has, for the first time, reached 10%.
I know to some this may still seem pretty low, but the 5y overall survival of #PancreaticCancer just reached double digits, at 10%. This a huge milestone, and a true reason to maintain hope in this difficult disease. Thanks to @PanCAN for sending out the email of this great news! pic.twitter.com/D7TppkOYgV
— Mike Pishvaian (@MPishvaian) January 8, 2020
There were thanks given to all the organisations and individuals who have been working so hard to bring better survivorship to this challenging disease. The results also gave cause to look to the future. Suneel Kamath, a Gastrointestinal Oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic, echoed the hope the results bring but also looked to the 90% as the remaining work to be done.
A large part of the online HCP conversation this month was around GI20 (the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium). HCPs were actively sharing highlights of the symposium including data and summaries of study results. There were a number of negative clinical trials shared at the conference. Wungki Park, a Manhattan-based medical oncologist, was retweeted by his HCP peers as he shared three of these with photos he was taking of the results on screen.
Despite the negative trials there was still a sense of undamped optimism for new treatments in pancreatic cancer. GI Medical Oncologist, Mohamed Salem, was praised by his peers for his attitude to ‘keep trying’.
Doesn’t matter how many negative #clinicaltrials get presented @ASCO #GI20. We must keep trying. That is the only way we will have POSITIVE trials and come up with the next standard of care for our #PancreaticCancer #patients as well as other #cancers
— Mohamed E. Salem, MD, FASCO (@SalemGIOncDoc) January 24, 2020
During the event PeerView streamed a question and answer session live in which HCPs answered audience questions regarding optimal treatment strategies in pancreatic cancer. The link was tweeted by PeerView and shared by 21 HCPs as they sought to give access to the session to a wider audience.
Live at #GI20: @jbendell1 @GIcancerDoc @MPishvaian and @rachnatshroff answer audience questions regarding optimal treatment strategies in #PancreaticCancer. https://t.co/Mdd48iI46Q #PeerView pic.twitter.com/Pgh7K7vbAp
— PeerView (@PeerView) January 24, 2020
New data and statistics demonstrating incremental success in treating pancreatic cancer have brought fresh hope to those fighting the disease in 2020. Follow our HCP conversations in pancreatic cancer tracker and keep up to date with other pharmaceutical tracking updates within the Tracking section of CREATION Knowledge, or by signing up to our monthly eJournal.
READ JANUARY’S PANCREATIC CANCER TRACKER
Methodology
- This article analysed the Twitter conversations of HCPs in the US, between January 1st – February 5th 2020, using CREATION Pinpoint®.
- Between January 1st – February 5th 2020, 1,303 US HCPs posted over 2,500 posts about pancreatic cancer on Twitter.
The cover image is a false colour SEM image of pancreatic cancer cells, grown in culture.
CREDIT: Anne Weston, Francis Crick Institute used under Creative Commons License.
