Doctor taking out medicine from the refrigerator with a disposable syringe

Pancreatic and Hepatobiliary Research

A cancer diagnosis is never good news, but one for pancreatic cancer is among the most challenging. With five-year survival rates for patients as low as 3-15%, it is the most lethal of the common cancers in the UK and globally. To make matters worse, 80% of patients cannot even be offered potentially life-saving surgery because the cancer is too advanced when first detected. 

Our research is fully integrated with the Pancreatic and Liver Cancer Specialist Units at the Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Trust and The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre Hepato Pancreatic Biliary Services.

Early detection initiative Blood sample test

Early detection of pancreatic cancer

Improving early detection times is key to improving patient outcomes, and it’s the focus of a new Cancer Research UK (CRUK)-funded study called the UK-Early Detection Initiative (UK-EDI). This £2m project is developing novel approaches to detect pancreatic cancer early in people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Tumour microenvironment Pancreas

Tumour microenvironment

The tumour microenvironment is the ‘black box’ that researchers want to better understand in order to improve patient outcomes. Pancreatic cancer tumours often form huge masses of non-cancerous cells, called stromal cells, comprising up to 90% of the tumour’s mass. The poor response of pancreatic cancer patients to chemotherapy is in part put down to this excessive stromal cell environment.

Meet the team Meet the team

Meet the team

Find out about the Pancreatic and Hepatobiliary Research’s team of researchers and clinical academics.