Campaign launched to raise awareness of liver cancer in Scots
Launching this week at a national cancer conference in Dunblane organised by oncologists and scientists at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, the ‘Rethink Liver Cancer’ campaign is being run by AMMF. It is the UK’s only charity focused solely on supporting people with cholangiocarcinoma, also known as bile duct cancer – to encourage Scots to be more aware of the cancer’s symptoms and all the ways to treat it.
AMMF research has highlighted how more than half of people diagnosed with this cancer (50.5%) receive none of the available treatments, resulting in very high mortality and a five-year survival rate as low as 2-9% - one of the worst survival rates of all cancers.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdSurgery is a potential cure, but for this to happen the cancer needs to be diagnosed at an early stage. AMMF’s research has found that only 21% of cases of cholangiocarcinoma with a recorded stage are diagnosed early, which is lower than other liver cancers and well below the 54% average for all cancers.
AMMF is encouraging medics across Scotland to be more aware of cholangiocarcinoma as a liver cancer that is rising sharply in incidence, including among younger people.
Helen Morement, Chief Executive of AMMF, explained: “Our research has found that one in five cholangiocarcinoma patients are under 65 years old when diagnosed, reflecting what we are seeing every day as our charity supports increasing numbers of people in their 30s, 40s and 50s whose lives are being cut short by this devastating disease.”
Benjamin Carey (55) was told he had cholangiocarcinoma last year. A sustainable tourism consultant who lives with his family in Edinburgh, Benjamin credits his GP’s curiosity for saving his life: “I was incredibly lucky, if I hadn’t had Type 2 diabetes and a curious diabetic nurse and GP, I wouldn’t have been checked out and I would have died.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad"They did a blood test and were puzzled by the results, so arranged some liver function tests which came back requiring further investigation and I was referred to hospital. I’m very grateful to them, they saved my life."
Like many people with cholangiocarcinoma, Benjamin was initially misdiagnosed and treated for pancreatic cancer. He then had surgery to remove a tumour in May last year, and in June his surgeon called him with some welcome but surprising news: “He said that the tumour had been successfully removed, but that I didn’t have pancreatic cancer and instead had cholangiocarcinoma. I had never heard of the disease and suddenly had to read up on a totally different cancer.”
Benjamin is supporting the ‘Rethink Liver Cancer’ campaign to raise awareness of cholangiocarcinoma and improve early detection and survival rates.
He said: “I want to help make sure that people who come after me have an easier time than I had in their diagnosis and treatment journey.”
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad“My family and I feel emotionally frazzled. We know that the five-year survival rate following successful surgery isn’t great, so have trepidation, but it’s very nice that I seem to have survived when the statistics were against me.”
About cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer)
Unlike the other more well-known type of liver cancer - hepatocellular carcinoma - many people with cholangiocarcinoma do not have a history of liver disease, or any obvious cancer symptoms until the disease is quite advanced. And because symptoms can be similar to other conditions, the cancer is commonly misdiagnosed.
Signs and symptoms
In its early stages there are few obvious symptoms and those that do occur - malaise, fatigue and weight loss, pale stools, dark urine and itching - are non-specific to the disease and can occur from other cancerous as well as non-cancerous causes, such as gallstones and inflammation of the bile ducts.
In advanced stages jaundice is the most common symptom (yellowing of the eyes and skin – although skin yellowing may be less obvious in people with darker skin types), dark urine, pale stools, and sometimes itching due to the cancer blocking the flow of bile. Jaundice is the most obvious and visible symptom associated with liver disease, both cancerous and benign.
For information about cholangiocarcinoma and patient resources visit ammf.org.uk
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.