Pancreatic cancer robbed Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze of his life while in his prime, and has struck Apple’s Steve Jobs and our sensational soulful singer Aretha Franklin. Unbelievably, the survival rate has not improved in 30 years due to its late diagnosis.

Abcodia, an innovative newly formed company I am working with, is engaged in the validation and discovery of molecular biomarkers for disease diagnosis and screening, and is seeking to improve the present survival rate and help save countless lives through the use of its human serum collected from over 202,000 volunteers.

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer deaths, with a five year survival rate of less than 4%, and most sufferers living less than six months.   The survival rate has not improved in 30 years due to the late diagnosis, and Abcodia hopes to support the development of biomarkers that enable earlier diagnosis.

Dr Julie Barnes, CEO of Abcodia, said: “Amongst the 202,000 volunteers who donated serum, more than 300 have developed pancreatic cancer, and they all donated samples before the confirmed diagnosis, many serially over several years. We can access their detailed clinical and demographic data that allows sample matching by tumour type, age, ethnicity and lifestyle, to facilitate well-designed prospective experimental studies,  including as required samples from subjects with non-cancer pancreatic disease or healthy controls.

”Advancing an early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is currently hampered by the lack of availability of quality preclinical samples.  The current standard, CA19.9 falls short of what is needed and through the use of our prospective serum collection, and by working with industry collaborators and expert clinicians, we have a great opportunity to make a significant difference to our ability to detect this high mortality disease at a stage when treatment would prove more effective.”

Abcodia was formed earlier this year and has been granted rights to commercialise IP from a serum biobank created by lead clinical scientists at the University College London, one of the world’s leading research-led universities.

The partners Abcodia are seeking are diagnostic companies looking to discover new or validate existing pancreatic biomarkers, academics seeking ways to collaborate in the field of pancreatic cancer diagnosis, and foundations or philanthropists interested in supporting further research into this often fatal disease.

Please click here for further information about Abcodia’s work with pancreatic cancer samples.

One woman left me a poignant message about this disease: “Sadly both my Grandmother and Mother died of this and they say it isn’t hereditary, but I’m not so sure as it feels like I’m sitting on a time bomb.”

I find it unbelievable that the survival rate has not improved in 30 years, and I hope this vast data-rich biobank resource and Abcodia’s collaborations can considerably improve on it.