Cancer Council Victoria released their ‘Cancer in Victoria 2024’ report in December 2025. This report summarises Victorian Cancer Registry data up to the end of 2024 and provides great insights into the state of pancreatic cancer in Victoria.

Understanding who is most affected by pancreatic cancer, how often this disease is diagnosed, and how much the disease impacts mortality guides the work that we do at the Jreissati Pancreatic Centre. Whilst as a Centre, we strive to have a national impact, and in some cases an international impact, we are located in Victoria, and most of our patients are based here.

Report highlights:

1) The pancreatic cancer incidence rate continues to increase.

It was the 8th most common cancer with 1,145 new cases diagnosed in 2024. This accounts for 2.8% of all new cancer diagnoses. Unfortunately, projections suggest that that rates of pancreatic cancer will continue to rise over the next 15 years.

Furthermore, Victorians born overseas have higher rates of pancreatic cancer than those born in Australia. This is believed to relate to prevention and risk-reduction.

Whilst the cause of pancreatic cancer remains unknown, we do know that there are some modifiable risk factors that can increase the risk of the disease. These include smoking, diabetes mellitus, alcohol use and obesity.

For more information, see Prevention and early detection | Cancer Australia.

2) Pancreatic cancer continues to be a leading cause of cancer death and was the 3rd leading cause of cancer death in Victoria in 2024.

Together with lung, bowel and breast cancers, pancreatic cancer accounted for 50% of all Victorian cancer deaths in 2024. Unfortunately, projections suggest that pancreatic cancer will continue to cause increasing numbers of deaths as it has done over the last three decades.

As per the report (page 61), “the absence of an effective screening test continues to make early detection challenging”, and late diagnoses are associated with increased mortality. The good news is that the Jreissati Pancreatic Centre, in collaboration with Pankind, has launched a national screening program for individuals at high-risk of pancreatic cancer.

To read more about the APRISE Program, please go to Pancreatic cancer screening.

3) Incidence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Victorians is more than double (2.3 - 2.4) that of the rest of the Victorian population, and worryingly, they are 1.7 - 2.3 times more likely to die from this disease.

Fortunately, there was no difference reported in five-year survival.

Equitable access to clinical trials and best-practice care is a key focus of the Jreissati Pancreatic Centre, and something the Centre is actively working towards improving.

For information on how we are doing this, please see our website for updates.

4) On a positive note, the second greatest improvement in relative five-year survival over the past 20 years (2002-2004 to 2022-2024) for all cancers in Victoria was observed in pancreatic cancer, with a reported 137% increase.

This is likely to be the result of earlier disease detection, and advances in treatment and disease management.

Whilst the data paints a generally negative picture, we know more about pancreatic cancer each and every day.

Early detection of the disease continues to be the greatest tool we have available in reducing mortality and poor patient outcomes.

The APRISE program, along with the Centre’s clinical educational resources, and disease awareness activities, all contribute to early recognition and diagnosis, and better patient outcomes.

The Centre also delivers clinical trials, and leads and participates in numerous research studies, which are all contributing to the discovery of better treatments and improving disease management.

We can only continue to fight pancreatic cancer and improve current and future patient outcomes with the support of our donors, clinical community, collaborators and funders. Thank you to all who support us.

Further information