The Delta Plan on Pancreatic Cancer, ‘Deltaplan Alvleesklierkanker’, was initiated to foster progress in research, early detection and better treatments by emphasizing widespread collaboration to achieve better outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients. Although much progress has been made in improving survival for nearly all kinds of cancer over the past 30 years, pancreatic cancer remains one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Each year, more than 2800 Dutch patients die due to this illness. Approximately the same number of patients are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year in the Netherlands. Pancreatic cancer has a bad prognosis: after 5 years, only 9% of the patients are still alive. Available treatments often have an enormous negative impact on the quality of life.
Amsterdam UMC is one of 15 expertise centers in the Netherlands who have partnered with the Dutch Pancreatic Cancer group, patient organization Living with Hope, and the Stomach Liver Bowel Foundation (Maag Lever Darm Stichting) in this unique nationwide initiative. Internationally, the Netherlands excels in pancreatic cancer expertise.
We are a front runner in the fight against pancreatic cancer, but we have not yet won," says Marc Besselink, Amsterdam UMC professor, researcher and surgeon
The Delta Plan aims to join forces and accelerate medical research, make the best treatments available for each patient, and work towards an improved quality of life for patients with pancreatic cancer. Delta Plan partners think beyond the walls of their own hospital, and work together to exchange the latest insights and implement new treatments. The Amsterdam UMC departments of surgery, gastroenterology and hepatology, medical oncology, radiology, radiation oncology and pathology are broadly represented. The first Delta Plan PHD student currently works at Amsterdam UMC, location VUmc, coordinating a prospective study involving a nationwide cohort of patients with periampullary pancreatic tumors.
The Delta Plan provides for a 10-year integrated research effort into the best treatments against pancreatic cancer supported by the latest world-wide scientific insights.
For more information contact Simone Augustinus