Pancreatic Cancer: Research

The Government recognises the crucial need for research into all forms of cancer, including pancreatic cancer. Government responsibility for delivering cancer research is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation, including the Medical Research Council.

The NIHR is piloting the ‘Just in Time’ scheme, which could reduce the amount of time needed for a hospital to join a clinical trial from months to days. One study to pilot this scheme is the PemOla trial, which is the first to explore using precision immunotherapies to treat pancreatic cancer.

As well as funding research itself, the Department invests significantly in research expertise and capacity, specialist facilities, support services, and collaborations to support and deliver research in England, known as NIHR infrastructure.

One example of this is the CRISTAL-APC trial, supported by NIHR’s Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre and Clinical Research Facility, which seeks to improve treatment for people living with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. CRISTAL-APC aims to combine standard chemotherapy with the drug VP-002 to reduce side effects without reducing efficacy.

The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including pancreatic cancer. Our approach to funding research is through open and fair competition and peer review to ensure that the highest-quality proposals, most likely to deliver real impact for patients, are funded without imposing financial targets or limits.