Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most challenging cancers to treat, largely because it is often diagnosed too late. In a recent interview featured by CancerNetwork, pancreatic cancer expert Diane Simeone, MD, discussed how the PRECEDE Consortium is working to change that through large-scale collaboration and early detection research.
According to data highlighted in the article, the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is about 13%, compared with roughly 70% across all cancers combined. Simeone explained that one of the primary reasons for this gap is that about half of patients already have advanced disease when they first see a physician.
Yet outcomes can be dramatically different when the disease is caught early. Simeone noted that stage IA pancreatic cancer has an estimated five-year survival rate of about 83%, underscoring the importance of detecting the disease sooner.
A New Approach to Early Detection
To address this challenge, the PRECEDE Consortium was created to build a global infrastructure focused on pancreatic cancer screening and research. The initiative brings together medical centers that collect clinical data, blood, tissue samples, and imaging in a standardized way while sharing information across institutions.
The consortium began organizing in 2019 and enrolled its first patient in May 2020. It has since grown to 65 participating centers worldwide, all working together to better understand risk and improve early detection strategies.
Researchers initially planned to enroll 10,000 participants but have already surpassed that number and are now working toward 20,000 patients in the study.
Studying Patients at Higher Risk
PRECEDE focuses largely on individuals at elevated risk for pancreatic cancer, including people with multiple family members diagnosed with the disease or those who carry inherited genetic mutations, such as BRCA mutations.
By following these cohorts over time, researchers can evaluate potential screening approaches, including blood-based tests, genetic information, and imaging tools. The program is also building what Simeone described as the world’s largest imaging database for people at risk of pancreatic cancer, which researchers are using to explore artificial intelligence tools that may detect cancer earlier.
A Goal to Transform Survival
The long-term goal of PRECEDE is ambitious: raising the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer to 50% by 2035.
Simeone emphasized that achieving this will require coordinated global effort and stronger investment in large-scale research infrastructure. Historically, she noted, funding for early detection and prevention represents only about 6% to 8% of overall cancer research investment in the United States.
For Simeone and her collaborators, however, the momentum behind PRECEDE shows that the field is beginning to shift toward a more collaborative model—one that could ultimately change how pancreatic cancer is detected and treated.
As she explained in the interview, the ultimate measure of success will be a future where patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer can hear those words and still have real hope for long-term survival.
Read the full interview on CancerNetwork
